Arrests made in Duke lacrosse case

News & Observer ^ | Apr 18, 2006 | Anne Blythe and Benjamin Niolet

[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.

[Guenevere]

Have you read the link on Drudge yet?

Two of the Lacrosse players...(not the ones indicted) are twins....and the dad is speaking out because he's extremely upset at what this is doing to the reputations of all the young men!

He's a firefighter for NYC and was involved with the World Trade Center that day!!!!

He says these aren't the rich playboys types that the media is smearing them as.

This man lives on Long Island and was a responder to the trade center, for goodness sakes!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Go read the link...(sorry I'm not good at linking!)

It will pull your blood pressure even higher....I know mine is!!!

[CaptainK]

Too bad she put herself in a position to be treated badly. Hopefully it will be a real lesson to other young women trying to make a living.

And hopefully it will be a lesson to young men, don't hire strippers for a party. Bad things happen when you are dealing with the unattractive side of human behavior.

[Coldwater Creek]

I will agree that the DA is a media whore, but INHO doesn't excuse the implied racist statements made here on FR

[sgtbono2002]

5 fingernails in the bathroom , are they trying to insinuate they screwed her in the bathtub? Where was the DNA under the fingernails? Yeah I watch law and Order SVU.LOL.

[FreedomPoster]

So you're seemingly defending this prosecution by the DA, and calling posts on this subject here at FR "racist", but you don't think the DA has a shred of evidence.

I think I've seen enough.

[gondramB]

I have no idea. I haven't seen sufficient grand jury leaks to be convinced I have seen enough of the evidence.

The grand jury is hearing only from the prosecution and the press is hearing mainly from the defense attorneys so I don't see how either the grand jury or any of us can be certain what happened.

But as news hungry as this group is, people here have a pretty good track record at educated guessing of outcomes.

[libstripper]

You've assumed the primary fact in issue--that she really was raped--when no credible cevidence of any such thing has been presented. Please elucidate the rest of us ignorant souls on what credible evidence there is that she actually was raped.

[Peach]

All rapes leave evidence of rape. Hair, fibers, and even condoms leave behind trace evidence that a condom was used. Forensics can even often tell which brand of condom was used.

And THIS accuser says she fought off the three men as they raped her vaginally and anally. She claims she lost fingernails in the fight. So where is the DNA under those retrieved fingernails which were found in the bathroom? The men were wearing short sleeved shirts, btw, as evidenced by photographs seen by two news outlets.

And photographs also show she walked into the party without some of her fake nails.

[Perdogg]

Under NC law, hold someone against his or her will and committ a crime, it's kidnapping.

[CaptainK]

His son has been in trouble wiith the law before. See post #191.

[maggief]

The accuser's father.

GRACE: Did she describe at all the series of events that led up to the attack?

TRAVIS: No, she didn`t describe all of it. A lot of things I learned later that really -- it really tore me apart.

GRACE: Like what?

TRAVIS: Oh, like the broom they used on her and stuff like that.

GRACE: Yes. I had read, in various reports, that they had threatened her with a broom, and then she and the other girl got scared and left. And then they, according to her, basically coaxed her back in, going, OK, OK, OK, we`re sorry, come back in. How did the police treat her when they took her in?

TRAVIS: I don`t know. But I hear they -- I hear a tape on it, which I can`t really comment on that too much (INAUDIBLE) hear on the tape, but it seemed like she was on the ground, and he said she was drunk, best of my knowledge what I heard.

GRACE: Now, sir, you had been with her that night, right before she went to the party, correct?

TRAVIS: Yes.

GRACE: Had she been drinking?

TRAVIS: No, not to my knowledge. As a matter of fact, when she called me, I could tell that, if she drank, she hadn`t drank enough to even begin to be drunk.

GRACE: Why do you think she was lying in the car like that in the Kroger parking lot, refusing to get out of the car?

TRAVIS: I don`t know. That`s something I never did understand why, what happened.

GRACE: Did she tell you at all about how her fingernails got torn off in the bathroom?

TRAVIS: No, she didn`t.

GRACE: OK.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/17/ng.01.html

[Perdogg]

The second dancer, Kim, says she didn't know a rape occurred

Do you remember the source?

[Coldwater Creek]

I do not know know what happened anymore than anyone else here does, I just hate to see one party get all of the crap thrown at them, when we don't know all of the facts.

I have not seen one post where someone thought that the boys should not have bee behaving like trash, just that the woman was a slut. Now, is that fair?????

[notigar]

They could've also worn condoms. who knows. All I was saying is, genetic material ain't the end all.

Ask yourself why after she left, one of them emailed "let's get some more hookers and skin them." They did something more than have tea. A jury will figure it out now.

[Peach]

She gave an interview on MSNBC. She is shown in the dark so you can't see her features. And she says she didn't know a rape occurred.

I think she's also quoted in some N&O articles.

If you look at the timeline, there is only a 7 minute period where the accuser could have been raped. MSNBC had a panel of experts look at the pictures and they concluded that the only time the rape could have occurred would have been a 7 minute gap in the photographs. Excluding the 27 minutes the two girls were in the bathroom. But since Kim says she didn't know a rape occurred, it couldn't have been during those 27 minutes.

[TommyDale]

I don't see a suit and tie on either suspect. What I was saying is that in North Carolina they like to disrupt people's lives for effect. They could easily have waited until normal hours to do this. Why 4 or 5 am?

[FreedomPoster]

>>Who said anything about a broom? I was speaking theoretically. Not all rapes leave genetic material. Do you disagree with that?

We're not in general talking about theory: we're talking about *this* *case*.

If the accuser was able to identify three rapists, then presumably she would have been alert enough to know she was being assaulted with an object. There's no indication on the original search warrant, which is available at The Smoking Gun, that any such object was part of the search.

[notigar]

In case it was there.

[wolficatZ]

Duke Lax Dad: 'I'm Sick to My Stomach'

 

Brian Loftus' twin sons are members of the Duke lacrosse team. (ABC News)

"Both my sons vehemently, all they ever told me was, 'Dad, nothing happened. Nobody did anything,'" Loftus said. Loftus added that the "Blue Wall of Silence" was a myth, and that all the players were willing to cooperate with authorities.

"These kids were willing to take polygraphs. These kids were willing to take blood tests. They were willing to come down and give statements," Loftus said. "They did everything. They gave their DNA. We thought once we give that, that it was going to be over. … But every night, every day, all we see on the TV is, we're hiding something. Obviously there's nothing to hide."

Loftus was one of the New York firefighters who responded to the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. He said he was also bothered by media reports calling the lacrosse team a bunch of rich, white kids whose only possession greater than wealth was cockiness.

"I'm not an emotional person, but every day I cry. I have tears in my eyes. I feel like the world's been pulled underneath my feet," Loftus said. "My kids, when you hear them sobbing on the phone that their lives are destroyed and you hear other people saying the same thing you wonder what went wrong. And we know nothing went wrong. I cannot stress that any more. Nothing happened that night."