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.
So now they drugged her and she was out of it, but not out of it enough that she can remember who allegedly did this to her. But, of course, one of the kids she does accuse is the kid with the most to lose because of the past arrest. Just more BS.
Hasn't that father changed his stories several times now?
"Sounds just like a liberal doesn't it? Doesn't want the facts to get in the way of his opinion."
Sure does...God help us.
A member of our family is currently under charges for murder.
It has been many years - and still we will not know the full details of the case until it goes to trial.
Even then - we will not know if all the information will be revealed at trial.
There is too much that goes on behind the scenes that is not revealed to the public in cases like these for people to form well-informed opinions.
All of this going back and forth is really a waste of time.
If a grand jury indicts them, then there is enough evidence to go to trial.
We won't know if this story has merit, or not, until the trial.
"It's like lack of evidence means nothing anymore."
Especially for the lib/socialists. Remember their mantra:
"It's the seriousness of the charge" (that counts -- not facts, evidence, etc.)
Yes, the father has changed his story ... but, he also divulges a few more "facts" the more he speaks. Why is he talking to the media at all? He's not helping his daughter, IMO.
A negative DNA test does not rule out trace evidence such as spermacide.
The contents of that email were truly disgusting and I had a hard time accepting that anyone who was competent enough to get admitted to Duke would commit such words to paper, or even think them. I can believe the explanation that it could have been written by a misguided LEO.
I'm sorry about your family member. But I don't think this is a waste of time; it's what we do on FR. Speculate and talk and tear apart stories that don't make sense.
I don't think he's helped her either. And once people change their stories like that, everything they say is suspect.
Well said!....a point I was trying to make.
However, boorish behavior (despicable as it is) is not illegal.
Those of us who are interested in the published information and the analysis/discussion of it are not pleased w/your implying that we are but indulging in gossip, that we should wait for official findings.
This DA official has indulged in unethical behavior according to the canons for DA. We have every right to 'gossip' about that infringement of the accuseds' rights to be considered innocent before guilt is PROVEN.
Misguided LEO???? NO, he would be a crooked LEO.....this case stinks to high heaven.
Has anyone here read Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe (a novel about a bright, working class girl from the North Carolina hill country who attends fictional DuPont Univesity and is seduced by the wealth, sex and drinking culture that pervades the campus)? A friend of mine has and told me that the school at issue seemed an awful lot like Duke.
The explosive allegations stem from an e-mail message sent in the last few days to several players from the e-mail address of another player, stating he was going to tell the police a crime occurred and implicate key players. The player denies he sent it. This comes after the recent revelations of the now infamous email sent by a Duke player hours after the alleged crime, in which he joked he was going to have more strippers over and "kill the bitches'; defense lawyers do not dispute that message's authenticity, though they insist it has no bearing on their clients' culpability. "The police said (the new e-mail) came from a confidential informant, but we have reason to believe it came from the police, hoping it would make all the players nervous," says one defense lawyer. "That didn't work." A spokesperson at the Durham Police Department would not comment on the allegations of a set-up, and said she would not forward Time's inquiries to any of her superiors over the holiday weekend. No one at the Durham County District Attorney's Office could be reached for comment Friday.
It seems I was confusing two separate emails.
Rita Cosby on MSNBC:
She says the accuser DID identify the boys shortly after the incident at the police station.
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