Posted on 04/18/2006 3:26:57 AM PDT by Mad-Margaret
DURHAM -- A day after a grand jury indicted two Duke University lacrosse players in connection with a reported rape, two men emerged from a sheriff's deputy vehicle and were led, handcuffed, into the magistrates office at the Durham County Jail at 4:54 a.m. today.
The arrests stem from a party that began March 13. The accuser, who is a mother of two, an N.C. Central University student and an escort service dancer, told police March 14 that she was sexually assaulted by three men in a bathroom at an off-campus house shared by three lacrosse team captains. The accuser is black; she said her rapists were white.
Defense lawyers said players maintained that there was no sex at all. They said the accuser concocted the story, that she was drunk and injured late March 13 when she arrived at the three-bedroom house at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd.
"... Two young men have been charged with crimes they did not commit. This is a tragedy," Bob Ekstrand, who represents team players, said Monday in a prepared statement. "For the two young men, an ordeal lies ahead. They do not face it alone; they face it with the love of family and friends and strengthened by the truth. They are both innocent."
Superior Court Judge Ronald Stephens sealed a manila envelope containing the indictments shortly after the grand jury finished its business Monday. The judge cited a state law that requires everyone involved in a case, including witnesses, to keep the indictment secret until a suspect is arrested.
Last month, a judge ordered DNA tests on the team's 46 white players; he excluded the only black team member. The players' attorneys say the tests showed none of the players' genetic material on or in the woman.
Nifong, bolstered by a medical exam that found injuries on the woman consistent with sexual assault, says he is confident that she was assaulted in the university-owned house. Nifong said last week at a forum at NCCU that the accuser identified at least one of her attackers.
Until Sunday night, the only other witness, the second woman hired to dance at the party, had remained silent. In television interviews, she told her story.
The woman's attorney, Mark Simeon of Durham, declined Monday to make her available for an interview. She spoke on the MSNBC cable news network, which did not identify her and showed her in silhouette. Simeon confirmed that it was his client on MSNBC.
The woman told MSNBC that she did not witness a rape and does not know whether one occurred.
The woman said she arrived thinking that she would be dancing at a bachelor party of 15 people. She was not expecting a party of lacrosse players, many of whom she said were in a drunken stupor. The woman said she was infuriated to learn that some players photographed her dancing.
The accuser did not appear to be on drugs or to have been drinking when she arrived, the second dancer said. She was "absolutely fine and in control of herself."
When the accuser left, less than an hour after she arrived, she was incoherent and stumbling, the second dancer said.
"She couldn't really walk on her own," the woman said. "She really couldn't get her thoughts together enough to answer any questions. ... She was a different person than I met at the beginning."
The second woman said she was the person who called 911 as the party was breaking up, to complain that some lacrosse players had used racial slurs. "The boys hollered the 'N' word," she said. "I was upset and called 911."
She said she pretended to be a passer-by because she didn't want people in her life to know about her job as an escort service dancer.
It is unclear how that woman's story would affect the case. Players' attorneys have said she would only help them. By day's end Monday, Nifong left without talking to reporters; it remains unclear what evidence he has.
Throughout Monday, there were many more reporters on the sixth floor of the courthouse than the 18 members of the grand jury panel. Reporters tracked the district attorney's movements in minute detail. Just after noon, Nifong emerged from his office and walked across the hallway to the bathroom.
Reporters surrounded the bathroom door in a crowd that included five television cameras, three still photographers, sound men with boom microphones and at least a dozen print reporters. At the sound of flushing, the group tensed, raised cameras and prepared. Nifong did not emerge with news.
"I no longer get to go anywhere in my community without people knowing who I am," said Nifong, who faces two challengers in a primary election May 2. Staff writer Anne Blythe can be reached at 932-8741 or ablythe@newsobserver.com.
One of the attorneys for the team said this morning that after he saw the "evidence" that the district attorney provided to the GJ he just couldn't believe that they were charged. He used the word "stunned."
Well, if he's that dumb, he's a candidate for the darwin award. The world don't need people like that to breed any offspring...
Thanks, I guess I have known it as false imprisonment. This girl, IMHO, was not kidnapped by the ordinary meaning of the word.
That's not the original police report.
" Well...swelling and pain/soreness but no DNA suggests "
Has it been determined that swelling a/o pain was the description ?
Because it's consistent with a number of medical conditions that can cause the same symptoms - STDs, herpes, vaginitis, yeast infections, cyclical changes and allergic reactions.
Nifong may have seen the report of redness and immediately concluded trauma and rape because it fit his template.
I don't know about in NC, but in Virginia the charge is "false imprisonment" and it is generally used in domestic abuse cases.
Give me the link to the original one then. Please!
What did she say?
That's what Nifong said on Rita Cosby's show.
All dressed up and under the cover of darkness. I surmise she wanted them dragged downtown in their pajamas...
If your attorney has arranged the surrender and bail has been predetermined, then it's perfectly reasonable to show up with a cashier's check to post it with.
I have no idea whether she can win or not. I sure like her though.
She came right out yesterday and said that as long as she'd been in Durham County she's never seen anything handled like this; she said they usually arrest them and then go to the Grand Jury.
When Easley appointed Nifong, one of the first things he did was take her special parking place away from her that Jim Hardin had given her because she was trying all the rape and murder trials and it was for her safety.
When she complained, he fired her.
If I am not mistaken, this is the first trial he has tried since he got appointed.
And no bailbondsman fees to worry with, either...
Nancy wanted them to SUFFER; you know she hates men.
She wanted the orange jumpsuit and chains and a night in jail; she even suggested they could go pick them up on a Saturday night when their lawyers were out to dinner.
Thanks, I just tuned in and saw some of it. That woman is just crazy - I mean that in a serious way - she is seriously deranged. If harboring intense internal hate is a detriment to one's health then I don't see her making it past 50.
She just loves to see men humiliated. "Ah there is the orange jumpsuit we all know and love."
I imagine that either the arrest was coordinated through the defense, prosecution and judge or they just slept in nice clothes. No big mystery there. Is Nancy Grace just that dumb or just that dishonest?
She appears psychotic on that issue...
I am not surprised. Do you remember me saying that the local race whores and possibly Jackasson's people would be running these guys' families through Lexis-Nexis and whatever other deatabases they have available to figure out which ones were rich, and then have Mangum memorize those names, and then the matching faces from the team roster?
I was just looking for it and I can't find it........I'll keep looking!
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