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.
That is a very ignorant statement. My brother played lacrosse, through college, I might add; UMASS. Alot of the kids on his team came from working class families, and alot of them got scholarships. Lacrosse in the north is like football is in the south.
LOL.......alert the media!
Thanks for the link
I forgot. There's no racial prejudice in the Northeast. Doh!!
Are you calling southerners racists? Is that your real agenda here?
I lived in the north for the majority of my years and moved south 8 years ago. Some freepers will remember the many times I've mentioned that there is LESS racism in the south than up north and the races get along MUCH better here. Southern freepers have agreed with that statment so take your race bating elsewhere.
So's the accusor.
Geraldo is on Fox, stirring the race/class pot!
"I forgot. There's no racial prejudice in the Northeast. Doh!!"
never said that either.
I missed him. So no press conference?
I notice you left off the dopiest part of your previous statement.
Perhaps you realized how truly stupid it was.
I guess you didn't read the news article clearly.
Go back to the part about physical damage consistent with sexual assault.
Then look at the entire scenario - a gang of drunk, upper class white atheletes and a couple of black female strippers at a "party".
Then, maybe if you can view this incident through an unbiased lens, you might reassess your opinion.
For your edification, despite my name "ZULU", I'm a lily-white Euro-American.
Hello? The fireman's son is accused? Where did you read that?
Geraldo is on Fox, stirring the race/class pot!
__________________________________
You deserve a medal for watching Geraldo spew his nonsense.
What is this "LaCross" of which you speak?
"Are you calling southerners racists? Is that your real agenda here?
I lived in the north for the majority of my years and moved south 8 years ago. Some freepers will remember the many times I've mentioned that there is LESS racism in the south than up north and the races get along MUCH better here. Southern freepers have agreed with that statment so take your race bating elsewhere."
Nope.
I already addressed that with another poster.
I never said southerners are racist.
But you would love to assume the worst about me wouldn't you?
Oh, and there's no racial tension up north. /sarcasm
Or in LA. Chicago. New York City. Where all the major riots of the last 20 years have occurred.
In the early years of the colonies, after Charleston, the largest port of entry for slaves was New York.
Nothing of course, I put in the tuition in part to point out that not all private school are for the elite. A family who could can afford to send there kid to private school for $6,000 a year doesn't have to be rich at all, whereas a $22,000 a year prep school would exclude many families. Both come from seemingly relatively well off communities, but hardly Beverly Hills. Both appear to be upper middle class, prosperous but not "rich". A defense of this case will no doubt put a strain on their families.
Oh, I get it, so now there's something wrong with being upper class and an athlete. I get it. I guess we should all aspire to be a "poor stripper." Again, if you've closely followed this case you'd quickly recognize that there's nothing to it. Getting paid to get pounded by men every night would probably lead to injuries consistent with rape (or "swelling" as it's been reported).
Umh....One of the strippers was white.
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