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.
Guess you don't believe in the old statement that "A good DA can get an indictment against a ham sandwich".
They are calling this case Bonfire of the Varsities.
I agree. This is what I was wondering also. IF she was the goody goody that some of her friends said, then she may have had to have a "booster" to get her started - sort of like a guy who can't dance but after a beer or 40 he can dance his @ss off.LOL
That was because they added words that I did not say.
Her friends are saying she was a goody goody? LOL
Maybe they didn't read the interview the accuser gave a few weeks ago to N&O where she admits she'd been giving one-on-ones for a few months.
I missed who will be giving the press conference.
"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."
That's the problem.
The story is never going to make sense - until the trial.
Trying to tear it apart now is futile, because I can guarantee that the police and the DA have 5 times the information than anyone here does.
Fantasizing about a black woman is illegal? Well, lock me up Jesse.
I have watched enough court TV that if I were an innocent person, I would be terrified of going before an American jury. If I were guilty, I would love it.
I heard that Wolfe reference early on in the 'case'.
Now, before anyone asks, the presence of spermicide would not preclude the presence of DNA. The spermicide kills the sperm, it does not destroy the cellular makeup of sperm and semen.
So, IOW there should have been DNA present since she did not bathe...that is why the DA was so confident at first that the DNA would give us the rapists...when the DNA came back neg the DNA changed his opinion and said that the absence of DNA means nothing.........which I don't buy for a minute..
"Guess you don't believe in the old statement that "A good DA can get an indictment against a ham sandwich"."
It's the system we have - love it or leave it.
He had to convince the Grand Jury, and the level of evidence is less stringent for a Grand Jury than it is for a trial.
That's the way it is.
I'll second that.
Then why did they lay this cloud of suspicion on the entire team for so long?
2 Duke Players Charged, DA Hopes For Third
WNCN-TV
9:43 a.m. EDT April 18, 2006
EXCERPT
"It had been my hope to charge all three of the assailants at the same time, but the evidence available to me at this moment does not permit that," District Attorney Mike Nifong said. "Investigation into the identity of the third assailant will continue in the hope that he can also be identified with certainty."
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12369776/from/RS.1/
"I'm sorry about your family member."
Thank you for your kindness...but don't feel sorry for him.
Feel sorry for his poor wife and their young children.
"Fine, where's his DNA on the woman?"
I don't know, but it could be in the condom he used. I don't know about you, but in the unlikely event that I had intercourse with a stripper I didn't know, I'd be using a condom, drunk or sober.
I'm going to withhold all opinion on this case until after the trial and after reading all the evidence that's produced. It's way too early to draw conclusions in this one.
"At the sound of flushing, the group tensed, raised cameras and prepared. Nifong did not emerge with news"
Translation: Gaseous emmissions only; still constipated!
Has that been definitively reported? I've only heard "No DNA," and that the DA suggested the assailant could be wearing a condom.
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