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.
"My guess is that the bathroom was pretty crowded with four people already in there."
So much for watching way too much television and spreading gossip about something that they know absolutely nothing about, I guess.
Thanks for posting that. As freepers can see from the timeline posted upthread, there are only 7 minutes in which the rape could have taken place. Not 30 minutes during which the stripper claims it happened.
The claim is that THREE players raped and sodomized her. Now the speculation is that all three used condoms and that they all managed to do this without leaving any DNA. I would have to think that the likelihood of this is so remote as to be impossible.
My thought is that "implied racism" means any remark or comment that can be read to be racist to anyone so inclined.
OK....the victim claims that she was raped for 30mins in the bathroom.....how does this relate to the time-stamped photos?......is there a 30min gap in the photos?....does anyone know?
I don't know but doubt it.
I figured that out, but missed the apology. Indeed, if infallibility were a prerequisite for posting, this would be an unpopulated site!
Agreed. 100%.
"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"
Actually, we don't know any of that. Very little information has been released regarding what was and was not found at the scene. I'm sure it will be coming out during the trial, if a trial takes place.
The bottom line in this whole thing is that we do not have enough information to draw any real conclusions.
She's a troll throwing out unsupported accusations at FReepers.
Unsurprisingly, I have a problem with that.
There is only a 27 minute gap in the photographs and during that time, the strippers were in the bathroom together. And since Kim has admitted she didn't know a rape occurred, it couldn't have happened during that timeframe.
The pictures as described by Dan Abrams and the Herald Sun
12:00:12 to 12:02:16 - the girls were partially naked, dancing in the living room surrounded on the 3 sides by dozens of men sitting on couches and chairs. the accuser was missing a shoe already. One guy in the last picture of this 2 minute set was giving the thumbs down.
Midnight: The dancer is sprawled on her stomach on the floor, as a second dancer stands over her. Students are watching the show but not grabbing or attempting to touch the women. Bruises are clearly visible on the legs and thighs of the alleged victim.
12:01:16: The second dancer is lying on her back on the floor with the alleged rape victim kneeling over her.
12:03ish - the women stop dancing possibly because of the alleged broomstick comment.
12:03:57 - women leaving, and going towards the back of the house. the guys say that's when the girls locked themselves in the bathroom. the accuser was supposedly in there fixing her nails, and the other dancer was getting dressed preparing to leave. the guys were on the outside the door telling them to leave.
12:03:57: The dancers are leaving the room after performing for four minutes. The photo clearly shows that the alleged victim left one of her shoes behind as she departed.
27 minutes go by while both girls are in the bathroom
12:10:39: One of the Duke students apparently is passed out on the floor, his head leaning against a sofa, a crushed beer can at his side.
12:30:12 to 12:30:47 - accuser is standing on the steps wearing a red and black lace top bodysuit and one white high heel shoe. She's smiling and holding a cell phone.
12:30:12: The alleged victim is on the back porch. She has a shoe only on her left foot as she appears to smile and apparently tries to get back inside.
12:31:26: The alleged victim appears to be stumbling down the back steps of the house.
12:37:58 - 12:38:18 - accuser lying on stairs, cuts, and abrasions visible. happened when she fell. fresh nail polish was on the handrail. it wasn't on the other handrail pick before she went out there. all of her clothing is intact
12:37:58: A series of photos beginning at this time shows the woman lying on her left side on the back porch, seemingly passed out or asleep. Pink splotches are on a wrought-iron railing beside her.
12:41: The alleged victim is being helped into the car.
12:41:32 - leg of accuser hanging out of door. this man carried her out to Kims car
They raped her with a ham sandwich? Those perverts!
"That's not a problem for us. You'd have thought that CBS would have far more information about those National Guard documents too; they didn't."
C'mon...a genuine police investigation cannot be compared to the bozos at CBS news.
We absolutely do know that no DNA was retrieved from the stripper that links her with the lacrosse team. The DA himself admitted it.
The above could be FR's mission statement.
Why are you on this thread if you don't want to discuss it?
From what I understand, there are only seven minutes during the time she was there in which she was not photographed. Keep in mind, she is not stating that this happened in front of the other players in a general area, but while she was confined in the bathroom. So if she in the pictures, that is the time when she could not possibly have been raped.
The only racism in this case is the idea that if the accuser is a black stripper and the alleged rapists are white (and in all likelihood some of them are wealthy), then the white boys must be guilty.
Yes there have been reports that some of the players at the party used racial slurs while she was stripping. That is unfortunate, that is despicable and it is inexcusable. However, I don't believe that it is a crime and certainly not one to trash the lives of forty seven people over. In all likelihood it was just drunken bravado.
DST?
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