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.
Peach - in our time of wireless technology, it is possible to send e-mails from just about anywhere, even from the classroom.
They weren't charged with drugging her. That sounds like a rumor.
Evidently it does.
Everyone of them are posted on The Smoking Gun.
No, I'm not.
It makes me sick.
IF true (big if), Nifong should be hauled away at 4 AM in handcuffs.
Thanks for explaining that! I'd been wondering.
"It's the same thing they said about the girl in Kobe's case and not a word of it turned out to be true."
If I remember that case correctly, the young lady involved apaprently was some kind of sports groupie and willingly accompanied Kobe to his apartment. Then when things got out of hand, she tried to stop it, and he raped her, but she lost the case anyway.
Is that what happened there?
I can't remember the details.
People should put themselves in situations where bad things can happen.
But people shouldn't allow sports figures to behave like animals and get away with it just because they are good at what they do.
Standards of acceptable social behavior should be required for students, atheletes, and other people.
We have become too tolerant as a society, of deviant and disgusting social behaviors.
Amazing, isn't it? It will be interesting to see if representations made by defense attorneys that the e-mail was a sting operation.
Thanks. If that is the case, I'm sure they'll have her looking at more photographs until she finds three that were there.
Not when the police have confiscated your laptop.
It sounded to me like one of them had been there earlier, but had left before the time in question.
He was from Delbarton? My Brother had dinner with the Duke lacrosse team last month, and he was sitting with the Delbarton kids. They've already taken a hit from Ryan's email.
It sounds like the purpose for the detectives slipping into the Duke dorm was to check out Crystal's I.D. of the 2 students as being present at the party. Since the guys did not converse w/them (per their lawyers' instructions), there's been a major mistake....if that "they weren't there" announcement from the defense is true. LOL
I don't think Google woould provide those details pal.
I personally know northern New Jersey - I lived there a few years ago.
Goggle would tell you Del Barton or DelBarton or Delbarton was on the eastbound side of Route 24 west of Morristown??
What else can I tell you to convince you I'm not fabricating my personal knowledge of the area? E-mail you a photo of my old house? Perhaps send you a copy of my old deed?
I wasn't aware that you knew the inner workings of this woman's personal life.
This is the typical attack of any woman that cries rape. Unless she is bloody and battered and running naked down the street crying for help chances are people are going to doubt her story, and the defense is going to play up any character flaw the woman might have.
It's completely possible it is all bullshit and the DA is trying to look good, however if we treat all rape accusations in this way many women aren't going to have anywhere to go for justice. It's quite a hurdle for women to cross to report their rape, because their character is going be slaughtered on stand. No one is gonna care or hear about how often that boy has sex, but you'll hear all about how promiscious the woman is (you're the perfect example). I think she at least deserves her day in court, and apparently the grand jury agreed.
One thing you have not included in your posts is Durham's racial history.
For as long as I have been alive, there have been outside LIBERAL/SOCIALIST groups in Durham, stirring the pot between town and gown.
If Duke left Durham, it would be a cesspool.
Are you and OldFriend the same guy, or do you work together?
I told you, I don't know the spelling of the place, I lived in the area, drove past it and heard about it. That's all.
Before now, it wasn't an issue.
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