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.
I'm not irritated. I'm rather amused that someone who thinks it's all just gossip to report that the DA has himself admitted there was no DNA found on the stripper is even on this thread. By all means, carry on. We could use a little comic relief.
Keep in mind that the DA can add charges at a later date. Even if GHB was found in her system, it still doesn't answer the question of who gave to her or even if she injected it herself- some date rape drugs are used recreationally, I don't know if GHB is one of them.
Maggie - do you remember reports that Kim was in the bathroom with the accuser for those 27 minutes?
However, what matters at least to the public is not what really happened, but what they believe happened. Additionally, blacks have more political power in the Southeast and the Mid-South than elsewhere in the country.
No, you are correct. However, GHB is 100% out of the system in literally hours. I don't know if it wouls have shown up. Obviously, this is speculation.
"I'm not irritated. I'm rather amused that someone who thinks it's all just gossip to report that the DA has himself admitted there was no DNA found on the stripper is even on this thread. By all means, carry on. We could use a little comic relief."
I'm amused that someone completely unconnected with the investigation would think they understand the case better than the police and the DA.
"...but no excuse for being wrongly sent to prison for 30-40 years;..."
If these boys go to prison, it is a life sentence. They will not make it out alive.
This 27min gap in the timeline would account for the 30min rape.....but, and a big but is Kim was in there with her....Kim is already on record saying she was in the bathroom with her, I'm curious now if she will change her story....
I continue to hold my belief these boys did NOT rape this woman. I believe the woman is a liar as is her "partner" Kim. Based upon his initial statements, I believe this "father" is a liar. Nifong is an incompetent ass whose neglect in the past allowed a KNOWN child rapist to be free. He's making up for that with this case, IMO.
I'll wait while you show me evidence that any freeper on this thread thinks they understand the evidence better than the police or DA. I'm not in a hurry but why don't you back that statement up just a bit.
If you think it's unimportant that freepers have torn apart the lies told by the stripper/accuser, her father and that no DNA was found that links the lacrosse team with the alleged rape, I'm still amused that you're here. You obviously don't care a whit about facts but rather disrupting threads. Carry on.
Passing one's mouse across a FReeper's name hardly constitutes an investigation. That said, I'm still giggling since reading your comment at 456.
I didn't have to go to your profile page...all you have to do is run the mouse over your name and you get your sign-up date..
Time line on photo's. Could they be off an hour because of DST?
Cheshire said the time-stamped photos have a 27-minute gap between when the two women stopped dancing and when the accuser was photographed outside the house. During that period, the dancers locked themselves in a bathroom and then went outside, he said.
http://www.newsobserver.com/1185/story/427087.html
Also, how quickly do roofies work? Cossack I'm sure doesn't know what he's talking about. This woman would have had to take drugs from people she didn't know then they would have raped her (presumably with a condom -- the last I heard, though, that there was no evidence of any genetic material or that a condom was present) but she would have had the presence of mind to know she was raped.
I think somebody sympathetic to the prosecution was just "throwing it out there."
If Kim is already "on record" as confirming she was in the bathroom with the accuser during the photo gap, that would be huge. I haven't seen that "record" though, but I certainly could have missed it.
I thought Kim was on record as saying she was in that bathroom for those 27 minutes too. They said they were offended by a comment by one of the players. In fact, Kim slapped one of them and went into the bathroom.
Since you've has so much senseless gossip in your own situation, it only seems fitting you wouldn't want to be on a thread where there is more of the same.
Even if the timeline is off because of DST, the stripper was only in the house for about 35 minutes. The photos reflect the timeline and there's only a 7 minute period of time in which she could have been raped by 3 players.
Is that an admission of an agitator?
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