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.
I don't know how you could possibly arrive at that conclusion. He mentioned he was an attorney in at least two posts and you could have checked his FR home page. It's only the first thing he mentions. Read his posts. I think you may owe him an apology.
Now, Nancy is portraying Black women as Rape victims or how it specifically affects black women.
Yes, watching Nancy's show is bad to have proof you weren't at the crime scene.
Very bad. She classifies it as a Defense error.
.
Why isn't she showing a hotline for the falsely accused? I'm sure that Grace's past is littered with them.
Actually, you need somebody to check the recorder's office, too, to find out what the encumbrances are on the property. A $1m property mortgaged to the hilt isn't helpful to somebody looking to shake somebody down. Assessors don't keep trust deed information. There are plenty of resources out there to learn somebody's net worth.
Good suggestion. But it does seem like a pretty sophisticated operation for this stripper to have pulled off (as would just looking at a list of where the players were from, and knowing the right zip codes from the wrong ones). If it was done, she has backup, and had it before she showed up, and the whole thing was a play with her the star actress.
Good God! Now she's busting the ba@@s of her producer!!
He's a collections attorney. I think chris1 knows how to locate assets.
How does rape affect black women differently than white women? Just curious.
What the hell is going on with this show? Is she on drugs tonight or something? I"m surprised this guy hasn't walked off the set yet.
BTW, false rape claims are around 47% and not the 2% that Grace just claimed.
And the cab company would know they picked up somebody and took them to that ATM.
On line access to your account would verify this too.
She's on dope or something...
He's an attorney? OMG.
That is a completely different scenario. But it didn't and we have the facts as they are so for me it is completely irrelevant.
But he said he had an ID. He has two boys under arrest and bond. A judge needs to stop this fishing expedition and tell Nifong it's time to cut bait.
The rape kit procedure includes a pubic combing process. At this point, if I were these guys' lawyers, I would refuse it on the grounds that an ID was made. At the very least, I would demand that the exemplat be analyzed for its DNA pattern BEFORE my client gives a sample.
The Duke guy was reasonable so he cut him off to go to someone that wanted to hang the men right now.
Here's a new thread on this subject. Check out this AP treatment of the players.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1617380/posts
"exemplar", lol! I really can't type very well - never could.
Defense attorneys say the lacrosse players requested two white dancers for the party, but the two African-American women showed up.
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