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.
You mean the same sports played on Indiana reservations throughout the United States. Those must be the upper crust reservations.
First Degree Rape (14-27.2) A person is guilty of rape in the first degree if the person engages in vaginal intercourse:
With a victim who is a child under the age of 13 years and the defendant is at least 12 years old and is at least four years older than the victim; or
With another person by force and against the will of the other person, and:
a. Employs or displays a dangerous or deadly weapon ... ; or
b. Inflicts serious ... injury ...; or
c. The person commits the offense aided or abetted by one or more other persons.
Classification: Class B1 Felony (40 years and/or fine)
And for First Degree Sexual Offense:
First Degree Sexual Offense (14-27.4) A person is guilty of a sexual offense in the first degree if the person engages in sexual act (other than vaginal intercourse):
With a victim who is a child under the age of 13 years and the defendant is at least 12 years old and is at least four years older than the victim; or
With another person by force and against the will of the other person, and:
a. Employs or displays a dangerous or deadly weapon or an article which the other person ... believes to be ... [a] weapon; or
b. Inflicts serious personal injury on the victim or other ...; or
c. The person commits the offense aided ... by one or more ...
Classification: Class B1 Felony (life imprisonment)
I got both statutes from this website: http://www.ncsu.edu/police/Information/NCLaw.html
Sadly ....rough for North Carolinians all around.
We've got a vacation planned there next month.
No kidding. Who knew some spoiled drunks hurling the N word could engender so much righteousness?
I have been amazed at how many talking heads have not done their homework on this case and are just making their usual run-of-the-mill statements.
If somebody was going to "come forward," they would have done so by now.
There isn't anything to "come forward" about.
These attorneys couldn't have been clearer about it: nothing happened.
When is the press conference the defense was suppose to have???
I thought MSNBC said it was to be on at 10am.
Finnerty is charged with Rape and Kidnapping per Rita Crosby....kidnapping?
I've thought of that as well; the boy's photos were splashed all over the papers and with a prior assault charge, he makes for an easier target.
This is not about "police." It is about an elected official, the DA, who lives in a racially-on-edge city and was confronted with a racially-charged case.
I would invite you to review Colorado vs. Bryant, and see the parallels with the Kobe Bryant-Kate Faber "rape" case. Many of us on here sensed right away that there was no case, and that the defendant was looking for a monetary settlement from an episode of consensual sex.
While the case was settled, and no final resolution was ever announced, the fact that the accuser managed to sandwich Kobe in between two other consensual sexual encounters (who in hell has consensual sex after being raped?), confirmed my suspicions.
If there were no primary coming up in two weeks, this DA would not have pursued this case.
Some people never heard of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.....or bad things happening to good people.
First of all...I would like to thank you for not referring to me as a troll or liar even though you clearly disagree with me :)
"Were the accusers and the accused of the same race, or if the stripper were white and the athletes were black, this case would not have seen the light of day, given the weakness of the evidence."
Maybe, maybe not. If this were a white woman there wouldn't have been charges? Do we REALLY know that? Or is it possible there is evidence the public is not privy to?
"A lot of blacks bear resentment for past injustices, and want to punish whites for the misdeeds of past centuries. Were the DA to dismiss the case, he could face the wrath of black voters (blacks are about one half of the population) or angry mobs in the streets."
Of course...he should be old enough to remember Tawana Brawley and how such a case can bite one in the ass if not handled correctly.
So...while you "could" be right...you "could" also be wrong, because...as I've been pointing out all along...we don't know all the facts to this case.
"In the pre-civil rights era, white DAs and judges were often extremely harsh towards blacks accused of crimes against whites for fear of voter backlash and the lynch mob. The tables have turned with regard to racial power, but the underlying issue is race, whether with the Scottsboro Boys in the 1930s or the Duke lacrosse players in the 2000s."
I am a Yankee...and I am always suprised when I travel south how race really does still matter there.
I am not saying I disagree with you or that you are wrong.
What I am saying is...I hold out the possiblity the police and DA know something I don't.
It's because you are positing illogical scenarios that you are becoming an annoyance.
>>LaCross is a sport for young upperclass brats who think their money and parents' position empowers them to use other people of a lesser sort - black or white - as their needs require.
That's an extraordinarily bigoted statement.
I've know a number of lacrosse players, and your bigotry applied to none of them.
You sure you're not a Dem? That's textbook class warfare rhetoric.
"You are here for nothing other reason than to cause disruption on this thread.
We've gotten along just fine without you before. And we sure don't need you now."
All I've done on this thread is point out the obvious...that the public does not know as much as those directly investigating the case.
I asked you a question and all you did was call me a troll.
I'll take that as my answer.
You don't know any more than anyone else here.
Ah hah! Exctasy(sp?) was what I've been racking my brain for. The smoking gun inventory list had pills included on it. From what I've heard, that stuff is just as bad as roofies. She could have spent those 27 minutes in the bathroom, because her head was spinning.
There is so many conflicting stories coming out about the evidence, that it's hard to keep track. However, time stamped pics don't lie.
Now my question is that the driver (2nd stripper) had alcohol on her breath, according to either the security guard or the first cop on the scene. Why wasn't she cited, or tested for DUI? The cops out here would have been all over that.
I imagine after the other boy is arraigned.
The DA made it clear he wanted a perp walk.
He refused a usual practice of surrender and bond out. Generally in low flee risks cases like this the indicted shows up to the jail, gets booked, bonds and leaves.
No cuffs, no perp walk.
This was all a blatent stunt.
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