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.
A LAX player's dad of a player who was NOT indicted was on GMA today and here is a link to what he said.
http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/LegalCenter/story?id=1853956
Very sad.
BTW, notice the guy is a 9/11 firefighter.
I thought all the Dukies were from wealty families with rich daddies!
"Unless John Doe #3 testified on behalf of the State."
That's a possibility, too.
FYI it was a quote from a movie, what he wrote.
Self ping to read later....
>>They are calling this case Bonfire of the Varsities.
Personally, I'm liking To Kill a Mockingbird 2006, with no Atticus Finch in sight.
That and a Grand Jury has a very low standard to meet to hand down an indictment.
Thanks for the advice, but we will continue to talk about it anyway. You are welcome to move on to another thread.
"As I said before, you scratch someone so hard that your fingernails fall off you're gonna leave a mark.
"
Or, if you're on your hands and knees, they might come off on the floor. Again, we don't know the story of what supposedly happened in any detail, yet.
That is true, but from what I have seen already, the defense should have no difficulty whatsoever in creating reasonable doubt. Unless they actually have pictures or video of an actual rape or assault, I don't see how the suspects get convicted. There have been so many lies told already by the accuser and her co-stripper that I will not believe anything from them now.
Bonfire of the VARSITIES? HA! That's the first laugh I got out of this story!!
"That and a Grand Jury has a very low standard to meet to hand down an indictment. "
That is correct.
You might not think the evidence is reliable, but there is the testimony of the alleged victim.
I agree that conviction, especially on a rape charge, lacking the smoking gun as it were, will be difficult. A plea to a lesser charge, some sort of assault charge, might be the resolution. If you send it to the jury, it's a crapshoot for both sides. As has been noted by others, jury selection becomes paramount.
As far as the TRUTH goes. I cetainly don't know exactly what happended. But it wouldn't be the first time young men used a little muscle in their carnal pursuits. And, if it happended, it wouldn't be the first time a woman was slipped a mickey.
Interesting. You're right, that is very difficult to explain. As Mineral Man said here, however, it's still too soon to come to a conclusion. Some skepticism is good, but lets not turn our skepticism into a negative conclusion.
I am leaning towards innocence based on this: I don't buy the Lacrosse team is all a bunch or rich jerkoffs argument. In any group of 45 kids, one of them is bound to be honest, and would tell what happened. I was in a hard-drinking close-knit fraternity of 25, and if anything like this happened I am sure that someone would have gone to the police. Friends cover up small stuff for each other, but I have a hard time believing that none of the 46 is willing to testify if it happened.
One of the captains told authorities he used an alias to hire the woman, along with another exotic dancer, to perform at the party, according to court records. The woman told police she was pulled into a bathroom and raped by three men for 30 minutes, losing four red polished fingernails as she clawed at a suspect's arm.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/education/orl-duke0906apr09,0,3482665.story?coll=orl-news-education-headlines
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