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.
Except that Kate Faber had sex with another man AFTER her supposed rape.
What rape victim has sex within 12 hours of the rape?
Good gawd. But was he speaking after arrest only?
This DA is making Barney Fife look like Columbo or Perry Mason.
Yes, they did.
Here's a good laugh:
Report: McKinney struck officer with 'closed fist'
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1617409/posts?page=2
DUH. NOT ONE of these news people, except perhaps Dan Abrams, are able to make the connection between the money available to these players and how their names ended up on the docket.
I don't think so - not that I've heard. I think the poster was referring to last weeks foray by DPD.
Any news on how the defense lawyers came out on the snactions they were seeking against Nifong for that incident?
"sanctions"!! lol!
Ah ha so she slugged him.....where's the GJ on this?
Thanks for the ping.
OT: Tony Snow has been offered Scott McClellan's job at the WH! He is considering it.
I haven't heard....but Rita said a few minutes ago that they where searching the dorm rooms again...possibly the room of the third suspect.....Howlin, you heard it too didn't you?
"I actually don't mind it, since I know most of the people on this board have not a clue about how these things go down."
Now you are sounding like a lib - how sure you are that "most of the people on this board have not a clue about how these things go down." Quite presumptious of you, I'd say.
It's not a question of whether everybody knows how these things "go down" - it's a question of whether one is basing their opinion on the facts and, yes, rumors, leaks, inuenedo vs. some that have a chip on their shoulder that presumes that these are kids of higher material worth and basing their opinion of the case on said dislike.
You have a anti-wealth complex because you've seen some richies get away with things that those of lesser means can't. Duh. It's unfair, I abhor it but that doesn't justify applying such a broad brush to these kids that overall we know nothing about or the wealthy in general.
It has also been shown that in the new topsy-turvy world of racial politics, hate crime laws etc. that the rules have reversed at every income strata...if you are of a certain race, gender or sexual orientation then you are qualified to have "extra-justice" meted out against the purported perp. This change is destructive because it is based now on a premise of group rights vs. individual rights. To grant a group right to one person is to deny an individual right of another.
This is wrong in instances as stated above - race, gender, sexual orientation - and is also wrong when applied to income levels.
There is a part of me, and I believe many others on this board, that agree in a dislike for arrogant, nasty or what not wealthier people and their reliant children. And some of those that agree with you are themselves wealthy. They dislike the swarmy ones even more because they consider themselves decent, law-abiding, hard-working people that are being maligned because idiots of their own income/status are giving them a bad reputation.
It's called lack-of-class and ironically you can have it at any social/income level.
I am quite confident that most of the members on this board, when watching a movie, root for the underdog. But most of the same members would also probably dislike to varying degrees Hollywood's tendency to make all rich kids, parents, athletes as complete a-holes or of all conservatives being portrayed as greedy, racist, homophobes. Especially when those Hollywood creators have become everything they caricature on screen.
Give up the class hatred - you don't wear it well.
Tony Snow has been offered Scott McClellan's job at the WH! He is considering it.
That would be so great...I hope he takes it..
Yes, but it's a double-edged sword for the defense. The thought of almost $1m sitting there is going to motivate the whore and the lawyers for the race-baiters even more to heat this up and keep the lies going - bolster Mangum's story. On the other hand, Nifong doesn't have them in custody to sweat them into saying nearly anything to get released.
Good for Tony! I won't miss Scott. I've hoped for a long time he'd hit the road.
"As I said before, you scratch someone so hard that your fingernails fall off you're gonna leave a mark."
Maybe one suspect WAS marked.
How do you know that somebody was NOT marked? Is the prosecution and/or the defense giving you a heads up on every detail?
Or are they telling the media every detail?
I doubt both.
Yes. They searched sometime this afternoon. I don't know whose dorm room it was.
Oh, please, please, please! I'll forgo a year's worth of gifts.
Why not claim the rape happened during the 20 minute gap?
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