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.
No. It is not.
Have you ever been raped? I haven't. But I can imagine two opposite responses. Some women might shut down and not have sex with anyone. Other women might start to act promiscous.
What man calls a gigantic press conference and trumpets the fact that he has never cheated on his wife, and especially not with a specific woman, if she's accusing him of rape, but he actually had consensual sex with her? Which is a better gift for covering up for your husband: a $2 million ring, or a Senate seat?
The DA has the unrestricted authority to charge her with Perjury though. He's not going to do that. She's his girl.
She will be a celebrity by the time it's over.
You also have to factor the Durham demographics. The DA is serving those people (or pandering to them). There's no way the political climate will allow for him to charge her with anything.
Don't underestimate the emotion in the black community in this case (damn the facts). Listen to Ted Williams on Fox/Greta. Even documented alibis are coverups and the work of these young, evil geniuses.
.
The key is the timing of the trial-sure to be aftr Nifong's election.
Howlin, any polls on Nifong's race?
Did Richard Jewell bring disgrace on the U.S. and the city of Atlanta?
The timing for such a gang-bang has already been left in tatters (outside the time she was driven by BF to hospital). Sooooo... is the defense going to suggest the two guys had hired her earlier, before the party?
Then, the D-Sheila Kuehl gang authored more "educational curriculum" to have "sensitivity classes" wherein the little boys and girls would learn they'd get their hearts cut out cold if they were ever heard using that word as an insult again. (the last part is my saracasm on the curriculum that ensued from the first one: both costing lots and lots of money).
"You can bet "DNA" will be brought up during a trial. What's the jury going to think when there is none? It's not like the DA can just ignore it..."
If I recall that is the same question asked by some in the Laci/Scott Peterson murder trial. There was absolutely no DNA evidence pointing to Scott as the murderer of his wife, but yet there was enough circumstancial evidence that he was convicted and got the death penalty.
So not all juries depend on DNA to convict.
Made me think of those "no nuke" signposts the libbies once thought would halt all nuclear bombers from entering their towns and cities.
You know what's next? A full press regalia.. with mayor and duke pres.. declaring durham... "A RAPE-FREE ZONE"!
From today's New York Times:
"We were actually hoping that she would pick names that we know were not at the party, and it would appear she did exactly that," said Kerry Sutton, the lawyer for a team captain who had leased the house where the woman was hired to dance at a March 13 party.
The law says a defendant must be able to face their accuser but I do not believe that means the "victim" must testify although it is difficult to have a case without one. In a criminal trial though, the state is technically the accuser. Obviously, murder victims can't testify and children have sometimes given testimony by videotape rather than in court.
CNN is reporting this NEW info
BOTH .. BOTH not just one player have Documents and witnesses to prove they were not there at the time the DA himself says the Rape occured.
Wow
And I bet she wouldn't say that if they didn't have the evidence down cold. This defense team has been impressive so far.
NIFong is going to be synonymous with IDIOT when this case is over.
Mark me' words!
I have this hunch, luthers_inkwell, that way too much "evidence" is going to be played upon the racial slurs. What else has defense got?
That's not accurate. Newsweek chose not to mention the visible bruises, probably because they're biased, but also probably because they didn't want to describe what she and the other woman were doing on the floor when Mangum was in a physical position where her bruises and open wound were visible.
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