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 thought it was Mangum
____
Oops, yes I forgot the 'n'. It is Mangum
It's Crystal Mangum
MaNgum
Think it's a real name. She's got class!
Arrives at parties with fingernails missing and polish gone and within two minutes can't find one of her shoes (Burp).
Why do I feel obliged to refer to her as a Single Mother WORKING her way through school (Very admirable you know).
.
Greta. Got to give her her due.
She upbraided one woman guest for calling the stripper "the victim" instead of "the accuser" saying it hasn't been established yet she really is a victim.
Thanks...I'm glad to here that..
There was one on Hannity, tonight. Didn't get her name. Lise was screeching over her, though. And Homely was reading all the DA's talking points when she tried to speak.
Hannity was useless.
LOL! Maybe some of these people are too young to remember that!
here's your link. simple way to just do a link it to go to the site, copy the web address and paste it in a reply.
http://www.law.com/article.jsp.htm
A guy I worked with at IBM was accused by a girl he was dating (an assistant DA, of all people) of rape. Because of her position, it made the papers. She jazzed it up with tears and crying fits. Now, 20 years ago, everybody believed her.
This poor guy was devastated, and spent two weeks in jail.
Well, the cops caught her in a couple of contradictions that made the newspaper. She finally broke and admitted she made up rape out of consensual sex.
She got fired, of course, but the accused finally requested a transfer out of town. He was never the same after that.
I've vowed since then to view EVERY rape accusation with a jaundiced eye unless it's obvious. And, if I learn the accuser's name, I'm going to blast it far and wide. It's not just to slam the guy and let a liar off scot free.
Supposedly she was orally raped, anally raped and vaginally raped, yet there is none of the boys DNA on her. Not hair, semen, saliva, sweat nothing. Someone had suggested that they used something on her, therefore no DNA. But don't you think you would know if something foreign was used and say something?
AKA,"My Cousin Vinnie" maybe?
I heard earlier that she is also a Navy Vet....
"An older movie called "The Verdict" with Paul Newman is probably the best cinematic demonstration of the system, and it involved a civil case, not a criminal case."
Having just seen it let me tell you "The Verdict" was one of the most over-rated movies in general and, as a court movie goes, in particular.
Here you had a lawyer that had tried three cases in three years and lost but yet we are never given a clue of how he survived. He did virtualy no background work, agreed to seek a settlement, saw the victim in the hospital and unconvincingly decided he would reclaim his dignity by forging on without his client's permission in a case almost completely involving technical medical issues needing a strong physical evidence presentation (but lacking the physical evidence), constantly shows up late for important meetings (gotta get that beer, raw eggs and pinball in), finally gets to court with a completely unqualified expert witness, learns, in court, about the existence of a medical decision that the victim has that essentially loses the case for him then and there, springs a surprise witness that had a copy of an important document that eviscerates the defendant's case but is rightfully thrown out, then, in a pathetic final closing argument pleas for jury nullification...and gets it.
Yes justice was served in the end but that is only because we the viewer know that the truth is on the plaintiff's side. Yes the defendant (the evil Catholic Church where the initial defense is to order certain "articles" be printed and, very interestingly, a favorable profile on the mega public tv station WGBH) buys off witnesses, places a spy, essentially pulls no stops and wrongfully almost wins the game.
But jury nullification is a double-edged sword that can convict/acquit the guilty or convict/acquit the innocent. It should be employed in only the most unique of circumstances. Very often now it is wrongfully employed - OJ anyone.
This movie was a quinessential example of hollywood justice, a complete collection of caricatures but admittedly with fantastic performances by Newman, the lead defense attorney and the Judge.
Yes there is massive corruption in our court system but to a certain degree there always has been and always will be- if you are wealthy or politically connected, politically ambitous or the jackpot - all three. Look at Whitey Bulger or Ronnie Earle or, of course, this DA.
Pouting
I don't want to hear about ARUBA! arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
I don't want to hear about ARUBA! arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
So far, that's all that's on Fox.
IMO, the worst thing about her is that she wears white shoes before Memorial Day.
Haven't seen your DD-214, either.
That stuff never happened with my friends. Too much can go down leading to really bad things. We went to a strip club or something if that was what we were after. A strip club is a relatively safe place compared to a hooker/dancer in a private house.
Tucker writes about learning of the accusation,
For an hour I sat on the front steps thinking about my life, my wife and my three children, my job, and how it was all going to end because of something terrible I didn't even remember doing.
http://www.equityfeminism.com/archives/years/2003/000062.html
See? We keep hearing how rare it is for a woman to falsely cry rape! I don't think so! I think it's the perfect revenge. The woman is ALWAYS believed.
Even if it is disproved, the damage is done.
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