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 High-Tech Lynching underway as we speak. And we can watch it all on TV.
If the alleged victim says that someone raped her, that's not hearsay. It's direct evidence. It may be false, or a jury may not believe it, but it's not hearsay. It's "He said, she said" as we heard ad nauseam with the IMPOTUS.
So what? There was no DNA, so how do you make the case she was raped?
Is the prosecutor actually going to go after these boys on a charged of premeditation?
Ohhh... this is gonna get so nasty.
One of the boys was involved in that homosexual incident in Washington.
http://www.newsobserver.com/1185/story/425722.html
What are the room rates over there at the Holiday Inn Express?
"And to think this would have cost me a cool $500,000 of precious campaign funds before I pursued BOGUS charges."
Toilet paper stuck to his shoe...
Sounds like he wants for everybody to know who he is.
Very apt analogy..
I agree, I'm thinking of the other dancers testimony, but that still doesn't negate the FACT there's no DNA! You can't get past that, unless another crime has tainted those results.
And their lawyers.
Just heard the two are charged with first degree rape, how can this be, there is no DNA to back this up, they have time posted pictures of this tramp's injuries BEFORE the party started, the same injuries they claim are consistant with rape, NO DNA anywhere on anyone, DA needs to be slapped, this tramp needs to be jailed, did I mention there's NO DNA?????? Did anyone listen to Savage last nite? We don't get him til 10pm here and I was half asleep when he was commenting on this case, he called this woman the Durham something or other, can't remember the phrase but it was priceless and on point, anyone hear it?
A forehead slapping statement I heard last night was that there was DNA found in the place of the attack (the bathroom)!! Ouch! Imagine that! Leaving DNA in the bathroom of your home!
"So what? There was no DNA, so how do you make the case she was raped?
Is the prosecutor actually going to go after these boys on a charged of premeditation?"
I'm just guessing but a woman with a date rape drug in her system, a witness who says an hour before she was fine and physical evidence of having been violated/injured.
And DA worth his salt could get an indictment on that. A conviction is another matter entirely. Remeber at the grand jury the defense is not allowed to present any case at all, only the prosecutor.
Well, it appears he's been arrested 13 days later.
Beacuse the DA doesn't have to present any evidence to the GJ showing the innocence of the person(people) he's accusing.
To add another thought: The police knew who this second stripper was all along. They must have asked her right away about the 911 call. Either she lied, or else the cops have known that she made the call right from the beginning. One wonders which.
This is Tawana Brawley all over again minus fatass Al Sharpton. If Shapton thought for a minute that this girl had been raped he'd have been there already.
Jackson called "Dibs" on this one.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.