Posted on 04/11/2007 7:46:54 AM PDT by Howlin
RALEIGH, N.C. — Three members of Duke University's lacrosse team could learn Wednesday whether state prosecutors will drop the remaining charges accusing them of sexually assaulting a stripper at a team party more than a year ago.
"I think it's likely that they will do that," said Wade Smith, an attorney for charged player Collin Finnerty. "We certainly hope that would be true. But until we hear it, we're not going to acknowledge that's the truth. We'll wait and see."
The state Attorney General's Office has scheduled a 2:30 p.m. news conference to discuss the case. It is unclear whether Attorney General Roy Cooper will be at the news conference at the RBC Center, which can accommodate the crush of national media interested in the case.
The Associated Press, citing sources close to the investigation, reported Wednesday morning that all charges would be dropped in the case.
The Attorney General's Office took over the case in January after Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong was charged with several ethics violations tied to his handling of the sensational case.
No notice of dismissal had been filed at the Durham County Courthouse by early Wednesday. But a spokeswoman for the Attorney General's Office told WRAL that the investigation into the case has been completed.
"We are relieved that this day has come,” Smith told WRAL. “There will not be a celebration because this has been a train wreck.”
The families of Collin Finnerty, Reade Seligmann and David Evans arrived in Raleigh Tuesday. Officials told WRAL that the three lacrosse players would be present once a decision had been made as to how the prosecution would proceed with the case.
A grand jury indicted the three players on charges of rape, kidnapping and sexual offense last spring after a woman told police she was assaulted at a March 2006 team party where she was hired to perform as a stripper. All three have steadfastly maintained their innocence, with Evans calling the allegations "fantastic lies."
Nifong dropped the rape charges in December after the accuser changed a key detail in her story. He recused himself a few weeks later after the state bar charged him with violating several rules of professional conduct.
Among the ethics charges, Nifong is accused of withholding potentially exculpatory DNA evidence from the defense and lying to both the court and bar investigators. Nifong faces a June trial before the bar and could be disbarred if convicted.
Nifong faces a Friday afternoon hearing in the ethics case, and he spent Wednesday morning with his attorney in Winston-Salem.
Nifong's recusal put the players' fate in the hands of Cooper, who promised "a fresh and thorough review of the facts" when he took over the case in January.
Smith said the players, their families and the defense attorneys were pleased that the special prosecutors took over the case, saying they brought "sanity to this situation."
“The special prosecutors have looked under every rock, and they have searched for evidence in places even the defense did not,” he told WRAL.
While Evans graduated the day before he was indicted in May, Duke temporarily suspended sophomores Finnerty and Seligmann in the wake of their arrest. Finnerty was also convicted in July in an unrelated assault case in Washington, D.C., and sentenced to six months of probation.
Finnerty and Seligmann were both invited to return to campus, but neither has accepted. John Danowski, the former coach at Hofstra who took over the Duke program last summer, has also said that both are welcome to continue their lacrosse careers with the Blue Devils
Love it!! Put her skanky self out there for all to see....
SHEP IS GOING TO ID CRYSTAL...SEGMENT COMING UP. Finally, HER pic will be on TV and about d.......time.
Nancy Grace was told last summer to shut her cake hole about this case.
Ug - glad I'm not watching TV. This just goes to show that there are some people who just plain need killin.
Thanks for the ping.
Crystal Gayle Nangum? Wow! How did Shep ever uncover that?
Maybe baby got back.
(Actually, in fairness, she *did* have a kid around the first of the year, so those vital stats might’ve been taken when she was pregnant. I can’t hit Smoking Gun from here at work so I can’t see what’s at the link.)
}:-)4
Later today, Nifong will announce that he is innocent of any wrong doing and allege the person responsible for this mess is none other than..........
................................Sinjia
WBAL radio in Baltimore, probably reading network news, just said on the half-hour that they had been accused of rape, that they had been declared innocent, that there had been insufficient evidence, but not that the accuser herself had recanted the rape charge. I think that is a vital part of the story. That insufficient evidence statement is what will enable many to say that they got off easy, a completely false statement.
Shep is telling the whole story including the prior rape claim. I am guessing the taxi theft is coming next.
Thank you!
(sorry for the bad link)
Its already on their webiste as linked in #505. Glad it will be on tv too.
I’m off to babysit; trying to get there before the 4 p.m. presser.
I’ll be paying attention, sort of, so ping me to any bombshells I might miss!
Shep saying they are releasing her name, pic and background because it is the “right thing to do”...exactly
No prob, just trying to help out.
He needs a new pic....he’s showing her HS senior one, I think.
Bald guy...Arthur Aidala...
Her string of felonies was reduced to 4 misdemeanors, 3 week ends in jail, and a $4,200 fine. She jus HAD to ‘dance’ to raise that money, you know. LOL
I thought that cut under Nancy Grace's nose was a steaming snack pipe....
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