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.
Raped by three drunks in seven minutes? Not in the real world.
I think there are singles boards where you can peddle your wares. Please go.
Man, Ted is off the wall tonight.
Hey, Ted, if they slipped her a mickey, how could she have FOUGHT THEM OFF? If she was DRUGGED, how can she IDENTIFY anybody.
And why didn't they drug both of them, Ted?
Again, Ted Williams doesn't know what happened here.
The woman was limping without her right shoe TWO minutes after arriving. That certainly goes against the players drugging her. What drug takes effect in 2 minutes? What do you shake her hand and say swallow this at the same time?
FOX needs to take Williams off the air. He can't process logic.
Ted thinks we shouldn't dirty up the victim. What about dirtying up the accused Ted?
I don't handle many criminal cases. I have handled a few, one which I lost, but got overturned on appeal, and a few which we had to plea to lesser charges because the clients I had were guilty as heck and would have done a lot of time if we went to trial.
However, I have other clients, who refer to me as "Tom Hagan" if you get me, that is not always easy just to "fight" for since doing so may reveal other things that should not be revealed.
Its not as simple sometimes as you think.
However, when you are a target, you have to understand that not give the authorities the rope to hang you with.
I also noticed in this article the partial-sanitizing of the accuser's criminal history:
"The woman, a divorced mother of two, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor counts of larceny, speeding to elude arrest, assault on a government official and driving while impaired. She was sentenced to three consecutive weekends in jail and two years' probation."
No mention of the taxi theft probably because the charge was dropped as part of a plea bargain.
Exactly.
Don't forget, not only do they have to rape her, they have to remove her from where she stood in the 12:30 picture, undress her, rape, beat, sodomize, choke, and strangle her, redress her in her body suit, and put her BACK in the same spot where the 12;30 picture was taken in time for the 12:37 picture!
And where was the other one when her friend was being raped?
You heard her correctly but she was lying. Howlin has links that explains the photos in depth.
I do this garbage day in and day out. I deal with wannabe criminals and people trying to get over on other people 100 times a day.
Or as Lisa Bloom put it tonight, "So she stole a car! So what?"
ROFL
"Hi, nice to meet you, miss skanky dancer. Swallow this."
Ha!
That's exactly bassackward of how I recall it.
You heard her correctly and she is dead wrong.
Again.
LOL!
Good advice. People who name an S corporation or LLC after their initials or street name are just asking for trouble.
Actually, it was first reported at ESPN the Duke players had specifically requested black dancers- which the ESPN reporter claimed showed the Duke boys wanted black women to demean.
In other words- asking for black strippers was racist. Of course, as you pointed out, specifically asking for white strippers could also be construed as racist.
WRAL says they searched Finnerty's room today.
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