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.
Hee Hee.
I did not think so...we would set this place on fire.
lol
Just rumors anyway. ;)
You can solve that problem one of two ways:
"Prayers for arrested in Duke case"
or
"NASCAR Durham NC Duke Lacrosse case"
"I have sent pics of myself to other female Freepers"
You only THOUGHT they were Freepers and that THEY were Female...
The other side of the coin is that if she refuses to testify in the criminal trial then that would just about blow the whole case out of the water.
The accuser is lying on top of the 2nd dancer......ugh
Doesn't sound like much "exotic dancing" was going on.
LOL
The NASCAR angle is better than the other one. They can't be having prayer vigils for kids who are so obviously guilty. A lynch party would show up for sure.
Oh c'mon--share!!
I doubt she has much of a choice but to testify because, as I understand it, there isn't much of a case without her testimony. No DNA to tie to any perps? It'll be "she said, they said".
Of course, putting her on the stand can be very risky because then they can pepper her with questions she'd rather not answer.
Can I ask her what the popular nail polish shade for stripping is?
"Because they would have been arrested, eh?"
And we do know there were two arrests.
We do NOT know which bits of evidence may lead to these two (or more?).
All I meant in my post was that marks COULD have been made, and until I know more it is reasonable to speculate marks may have been a factor for one or both of these two.
Mostly the public knows very little about evidence there is for this case. We know, for instance, the press is following the DA to the mens' restroom.
The assumption that absent DNA, there cannot be a sound prosecution is silly. We have had DNA for just a few years, but have convicted rapes for a long time.
"I was under the impression that the accuser can be compelled to testify in a trial."
Whoopsie!!!!! I've followed this thread, on and off, for 14 hours (my day off) and seems the ole' brain's aslippin.
You are so correct.
Embarrassed - over and out.
The Accuser can be compelled... but it's rarely done in these type of trials.
Just like the Kobe trial when the woman decided she wasn't going to testify, the DA folding his case.
That would be a gift to the DA at this time. He's praying at this very moment that she decides she won't participate. Then, he can drop the case and tell his black constituancy that it was out of his hands, he did everything he could.
This victim has the world at her feet. Jesse Jackson, millions of well-wishers, multiple attorneys have offered to represent her.. She's thinking book deals, movie rights,
Spike Lee providing her limos.. She is going forward.
She will be a hero in the black community even if the case falls apart.
I think there is absolutely zero chance of her deciding NOT to testify.
1. The inner workings of the lives of women who do what the accuser does can be easily ascertained. All you have to do is ask anyone "in her business" and you'll learn these girls have a lot in common. Most common is addiction, prostitution, children born out of wedlock, etc. I know many former strippers (my SIL was a "dancer" and I know her former friends) and am acquainted with one "escort" (she rents my property belonging to my brother). It's very easy to assume the worst about these types of women and most of the time you'll be right in your assumptions.
This is the typical attack of any woman that cries rape.
That is a lie. Women are more empowered now than ever. Rape is taken seriously now more than ever. MOST women who are raped have some sort of evidence on their person when examined.
It's completely possible it is all bullshit and the DA is trying to look good...
Nifong "lost" a child rapist a while back. The guy was allowed to walk free. The little girl's father had to go to the media to get something done. Nifong was humiliated publicly because of his "oversight". I am willing to bet he is overcompensating in this case for his past mistake even at the risk of ruining these boys' lives.
I think she at least deserves her day in court
She does. As a defendant.
and apparently the grand jury agreed.
When only one side is producing evidence it's easy to see why a GJ will hand down an indictment.
*** MUST READ *****
This from the NC NAACP head:
Barber said the allegations against the pair "suggest a downward spiral from privilege and advantage to decadence and deviance."
*** ******
Doesn't that just fit into his worldview.
Thanks for your response Jezebelle. Howlin posted me a link to the Durham police media report so I finally saw it with my own eyes.
You don't remember his giant press conference about a week after the charges where he loudly proclaimed that he had "never had sex with that woman," and that he had never been unfaithful to his wife...ever. And he had her sitting there at his side supporting him. I've never seen someone channel Bill Clinton that much. Gee, doesn't the act that he later admitted to having sex with her and cheating on his wife mean he's pretty much a TOTAL LIAR. If he had consensual sex with her he would have used that press conference to tearfully admit that he had cheated with this woman. But instead, he invited every media outlet in the Western world and loudly proclaimed something that later would be proven to be a lie. What does that tell you?
snarkytart, your rumors can not be much worse than what Cheshire has already alluded to this morning.
CHESHIRE: Paula, well, first of all, let me say this for a living -- let me say this about what this woman does for a living.
Anybody that knows what she does for a living and the reality of what she does for a living knows that she could have received those injuries any time before 12:00 that evening. Now, as -- as this trial goes on, we will be able to discover exactly where she is. But the fact that she may have had sex with somebody after 6:00 or before 6:00 would mean, if she went to the hospital, they would show that she had -- quote -- "injuries," which is a word I don't like, but a medical condition, or things in her body, consistent with the fact that she may have had sex with somebody.
That does not prove that she...
Perjury will get you a sure five years in prison if committed in federal court. State court may be different. she gets put on the stand and she will be asserting her 5th Amendment right against self incrimination within 10 minutes.
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