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.
What is your source?
What happened to her fiance? I think I missed that episode.
Bit off the subject, but that attorney who turned in the crooked judge in Washington, did he ever get his bar card back?
Don't they have ATM receipts and taxi receipts?
Explain, pls.
Never mind, I found the answer a few posts later.
Nifong is already synonymous with idiot, IMO. I knew he was an idiot when he "lost" a child rapist last year.
*SHRUG* I won't bother to waste my time explaining the errors in your synopsis and appraisal and how you missed the point of what I said relative to my reference to the movie. I've been to court enough and worked with enough prosecutors to know what goes on and what I'm talking about.
Apparently you're everything people seem to think you are. I think it best that you and I just stick to our respectives frames of reference and discontinue the dialogue.
Agreed.
However, this case has inflamed and provoked many people mostly due to the public comments made by Nifong and his 70 plus media interviews.
Did you notice?
Nancy Grace and some others are jumping on the Defense lawyers and saying they blew it because they've made their defense known - they are locked into a story.
Did you happen to notice that these same people applauded
DA-Nifong when he went on National TV and demonstrated how the accuser WILL TESTIFY that she was grabbed and restrained and how she broke her fingernails fighting to breath and escape.
Curious.
I noticed. BTW, can you remember the father's name who had to go to the media because Nifong's office lost the files and failed to prosecute the man who sexually assaulted his little girl? I can't find record of that online and was wondering if you recall the incident last year (I believe) as it was highly publicized locally.
One does have the taxi and ATM receipts
The other was in a restaurant and the waiter and about 6 people can place him there.
If true and the receipts verify and the witnesses are solid, Nifong should be jailed along side his alleged victim and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and sued.
I remember the case - big time. The local media gave him a pass there too.
I can't remember the name. That's going to bug me now.
Look for him to LOSE the toxicology report on the accuser in this case. 27 years old with 3 license suspensions, a DWI over twice the legal limit, and a drug poss/use charge.
She showed up impaired that night. Pictures of her hopping on one shoe TWO minutes after arriving support that, and the players said WAY back when .. they have consistently said one of the dancers showed up drunk or high.
.
I did locate and read the article. Thanks for the lead. I can't say I'm surprised.
I have seen her treat other lawyers sitting as guests on her show abysmally, but tonight was the limit. The lawyers are trained and experienced in giving back as good (or bad) as they get, but there is no excuse for her ridicule and rudeness to laypeople. She was rude to Kevin Miller of WPTF and the young president of the Duke Conservative Union. I was never a faithful viewer, but I will never watch her show again.
You said,
"If true and the receipts verify and the witnesses are solid, Nifong should be jailed along side his alleged victim and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and sued."
I wish that were true. However, I think there's corruption out there and the media won't put any pressure on him to resign or for any action to be taken against either.
As long as Nifong is the DA (I think he will be for some time), the DANCER (accuser) will NOT be prosecuted. She's his girl and she's going to be a local, if NOT national, hero in the black community.
That's one thing I will be the farm on, Nifong will not take action against his girl. No way - No how. For one, there'd be a local revolt and, two, to do so would be an admission he was bamboozled.
.
This is a Durham circus. A downright circus. And it hasn't been brought to us by the Defense. But by the Offense.
Here ya go: Yes, BOTH have alibis
But see last sentence -- more importantly the News & Observer caught one of the suspects running a red light! What swagger!
http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/04/18/duke.rape/index.html
/excerpt
DURHAM, North Carolina (CNN) -- Two Duke University lacrosse team members were charged Tuesday in the rape of a woman hired to dance at a team party, and the district attorney is trying to determine the identity of a third suspect.
Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty, both sophomores, are charged with first-degree forcible rape, first-degree sexual offense and kidnapping, officials said.
snip
"The two that they indicted had no contact with this woman whatsoever," he said. "We are shocked, absolutely shocked. We always thought she would pick out someone who at least had a conversation with her."
Sources close to the investigation said Tuesday that the defense will present evidence -- including ATM receipts -- that neither Seligmann, 20, nor Finnerty, 19, were at the team party at the time the alleged rape took place.
A cab driver allegedly carried one of the young men to an ATM, where a security camera captured his picture, the sources said, and the other man was reportedly at a restaurant.
Deputies brought the two men to Durham County jail before 5 a.m. ET Tuesday, and they were fingerprinted and photographed.
Seligmann waived his right to appear in court and was represented by his attorneys. Finnerty made a brief court appearance. Both men posted $400,000 bail. Their next court date is May 15.
Upon leaving jail, Seligmann ran with another man to a Ford Explorer with New Jersey license plates, The (Raleigh) News & Observer reported. The vehicle then ran a red light, according to the paper.
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