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.
Addendum to Nasty Graceless on CNN (I'm watching it again, man this is a real guilty pleasure): guest mentions the alibi (~35 minutes into the show), when he's done, she goes something like this: "So you're telling me, he went to an ATM?...and saaaaaved?...the receipt!?" Honest to God she is rolling her eyes as she says this.
Full-nostril smackdown coming up NOW!
Did you see earlier that the DA asked and recieved hair and pubic hair samples from the boys....heard the results may be released tomorrow..
Ted Williams is an idiot
I concur..
I have a shaved head and am a bodybuilder. If you want a pic I will send you one. I look nothing like that picture.
Have they lost their minds or do they just not know what is going on down here?
Why are all the attorneys on TV saying the alibis are a bad idea?
This makes me puke! What happened to presumption of innocence??
Screaming morons on parade on Fox.
Why don't you take your personal issues off this thread, please.
need to get my racketeering lawsuit resolved first. US Atorney admits i am a victime but refuses to prosecute the perps. Got the goods on one US District Court judge, too. He destroyed and concealed documents implicaing himself in racketeering. the clerk of the court is abetting the racketeering as well.
I look like the guy from the shield combined with a little Stone Cold.
I'm sorry Chris, I shouldn't be laughing so hard, but do I sense just a teeny bit of vanity?
I have sent pics of myself to other female Freepers, who were, rather impressed with the goods.
Hear, hear!
Iz figna vomick!
They're all locked into their opinions expressed on prior shows and are now twisting and squirming on this case.
"It is important that we not only bring the assailants to justice, but also that we lift the cloud of suspicion from those team members who were not involved in the assault," Nifong said.
Assailants?
Main Entry: as·sail
Pronunciation: &-'sA(&)l
Function: transitive verb
Etymology: Middle English, from Old French asaillir, from (assumed) Vulgar Latin assalire, alteration of Latin assilire to leap upon, from ad- + salire to leap -- more at SALLY
: to attack violently with blows or words
synonym see ATTACK
- as·sail·able /-'sA-l&-b&l/ adjective
- as·sail·ant /-'sA-l&nt/ noun
He is out of control.
Yes, I heard early on they took a lot of pubic hair from each player.
Let us not forget Ted Williams said he was speaking for the Black community a couple weeks back when Daryl Littlejohn was arrested for the Brutual Killing, rape, sodomy, and mutilation in New York. He said he was concerned there was a coverup and he compared Daryl Littlejohn to the black guys arrested early on in Aruba.
------
The LittleJohn case was a Black man raping, sodomizing, killing, and mutliating a White woman.
HOWEVER, it was NEVER reported like that.
Now, I challenge you to find an article on the DUKE case that doesn't say the alleged perps are WHITE or the alleged Victim was BLACK.
.
"Defense attorneys say the lacrosse players requested two white dancers for the party, but the two African-American women showed up."
Sorry. Wihtout attribution to the attorney and an actual quote I simply don't trust this source. I see no benefit for the defense, at least at this point, to admit such a thing.
During the trial, if it gets to that point, then yes the defendants may admit that they asked for two white dancers and were angry/disappointed when tow black dancers arrived.
Yet it would seem their main reason for disappointment may have been the fact that the accuser was giving a horrific, drunk performance by any standard, slapped a player for suggesting a broom be part of the act (one of the more murky issues) then disappeared for thirty minutes in the bathroom.
Again no attribution or quote then I don't have any reason to believe it.
I think they think you should save them for the trial. I say BS. You don't want to go to trial. Anything that can short circuit the prosecution case should be done ASAP. Maybe they will get lucky and get a good judge that will end this case before it gets started.
"This is probably the worst miscarriage of justice I've seen in 34 years of practice," said another Seligmann lawyer, Julian Mack.
Bill Thomas, a lawyer for a player who has not been charged, said that one of the two men under indictment did not even attend the party. He would specify which one, saying only that "multiple witnesses and a commercial transaction" would provide an alibi.
According to a filing made by the district attorney's office, the residents of the house where the party took place told police that Seligmann was one of six players who did not attend the party.
Another attorney, Robert Ekstrand, who represents dozens of players, said neither Seligmann nor Finnerty was at the party "at the relevant time."
The indictment represents "a horrible circumstance and a product of a rush to judgment," Ekstrand said.
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