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.
Thats the whole thing, they're saying there was no DNA under the fingernails. But according to Wendy Murphy, thats the proof that a rape occured.
Did she violently attack another person?
Did you mean to write that to me? I'm sorry I don't get the reference.
GHB leaves a person without memory of what happened. So how could she identify two accusers?
And why was she smiling and laughing and talking on her cell phone at 12:30? She was only in the house for 35 minutes for goodness sakes.
Have you looked at the timeline? Why don't you do that.
>Prosecutors proved rape cases without DNA for centuries
Rape and murder convictions are being overturned on appeal, using new DNA methods on the evidence, all over this country.
"Ahem. Condoms themselves leave trace evidence and none was found on the accuser. None. No DNA from the boys. No hair. No skin under her fingernails, although she says she fought them off."
I had not seen that report - do you happen to have a link? Is it the medical report or the police forensics report that says none of this was found?
None that we know of, anyway. Neither you nor I know whether any was actually found, or why a DNA test was run. The media is not likely to have exhaustive knowledge of all the evidence that will be produced at trial.
I'm not saying that I believe the rape allegations. I don't know enough to have an informed opinion. Nor does anyone else, since almost all the information we have comes from the defense and this information may or may not be accurate. We should withhold judgment until we know what the jurors at trial know - and I'm inclined to show deference to the grand jury's determination that there is reason to believe a crime had been committed.
It proves nothing except that you're just trolling here.
Maria, I agree with you entirely that these young men behaved totally like trash and that its symptomatic of an athlete entitlement, you can't touch me, culture that is all too prevalent at schools like Duke. It would be hell to live next door to them and I doubt that the bulk of them ever gave a tinker's damn about their neighbors or how their behavior hurt or impacted anyone outside their circle. That said, its a long way from acting like boorish, rude and noxious simpletons (which probably characterized the daily lifestyle of a lot of the lacrosse players) to substantiating charges of gang-rape based on what looks to me to be VERY skimpy evidence and a D.A. who is running for reelection while pandering to his potential voters.
Where did you read that the pills found were from the accuser's purse? I don't see that on the search warrant, only that they recovered "pills". There was no indication of what they were or who they belonged to.
The IRS did it to me yesterday.
RE: "I cannot stress that any more. Nothing happened that night."
%%%%%
What has hit these boys is as random as the drunk driver that hit the son of a friend of mine. He was on spring break, minding his own business, looking forward to graduation from university, and receiving his commission in the USArmy. Now he is in hospital undergoing the fight for his life.
Some people are in a bus that goes over a cliff. A tragedy, also.
Everyone involved in this incident is a victim and has my greatest sympathy.
The DA himself admits that no DNA from any of the players was found in or on her body or clothing. None. Do you want cites for that? Just put Duke in the keyword section of FR and read the articles.
Condoms do leave behind trace evidence, some of which can be used to identify the type of condom used.
http://www.crimeandclues.com/condoms.htm
Actually it was in response to post #203. I have no idea how that happened. Sorry for the confusion, but maybe we are overloading the site.
I'm unfamiliar with the drug you're describing. Is it something that is taken on one's own, ever? Wouldn't there have to be some evidence that she was given it at the party?
Thanks in advance.
Post of the day!
Uh, yes, we do know this. The DA himself has admitted that the DNA tests came back negative.
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