| Monday, April 17, 2006 |
| Indicted |
The Duke indictments are confirmed by a defense attorney, and "dancer number two" speaks out. (Update: Talkleft says the names of the accused could be made public tomorrow, and Jeralyn Merritt wonders whether the accuser's name should be released, too.) From AP today:
DURHAM, N.C. (AP) -- A grand jury issued sealed indictments Monday against two members of the Duke University lacrosse team in connection with allegations that a stripper was raped last month at a team party, a defense attorney said.
"Today, two young men have been charged with crimes they did not commit," attorney Robert Ekstrand said in a statement. "This is a tragedy. For the two young men, an ordeal lies ahead. ... They are both innocent."
Ekstrand, who represents dozens of players, did not say which players were indicted or what charges they faced.
The grand jury adjourned around 2 p.m. Monday, handing up indictments a short time later to Superior Court Judge Ronald Stephens. A filing at the courthouse said the judge had sealed at least one indictment, citing a state law that allows an indictment to be "kept secret until the defendant is arrested or appears before the court." Here we go... Refreshers include the original search warrant for the home at 610 North Buchanan Blvd., where the party took place, and a certain shocking email... the alleged crimes we're talking about are serious: "first degree forcible rape," "first degree kidnapping," "first degree forcible sexual offense," "common law robbery," and "felonious strangulation." They concern "Adam" and "Matt," the two men the accuser says pulled her into a bathroom, and teriarily, "Brett," who she says helped hold her legs and arms during the assault.
The accuser reported her allegations to the police officers who responded to the Kroger store where she was driven after leaving the party house. Note that the police report does not state that she told her story to the security guard, whose interview is now being used to impeach the accuser in the press.
The police took several items from the home, according to the warrant, including a microcassette recorder, digital camera, several laptops, hard drives and PC cards, and other electronic devices, which suggests the party, and perhaps even the goings on in the loo, might have been recorded. They also removed things like a wet paper towel, dish rag, hand wipes, bath mats, and a bottle of KY jelly. Evidence of a clean-up attempt? Or the kind of benign stuff you find in a home where horny college boys live? Who knows, but it's certainly interesting, especially in light of the fact that no DNA was found on the accuser's person or belongings, but we've neverheard about what might have been found on other items seized from the house.
TalkLeft still isn't buying it, though I don't think the supposed inconsistencies brought out by the Kroger security guard are very relevant. She didn't examine the accuser nor does it appear she even talked to her. And I doubt a security guard's interpretation of what a rape victim is supposed to look like will matter to anyone but the defense.
Meanwhile, the second dancer at the party has given an interview to the NBC affiliate in Raleigh, and I think she answers some of TalkLeft's remaining questions (including why the second dancer's story might have seemed inconsistent and whether it was "pills" or "bills" that were seized from the residence):
In an exclusive interview with NBC17, a second woman who also danced at the March 13 party refuted claims made in recent days by defense attorneys that the accuser was intoxicated and injured when she arrived at the party.
"She looked absolutely fine," the second dancer said, noting that the accuser's demeanor changed dramatically after they left the party.
"She was definitely a totally different woman than when I first met her. She definitely was under some sort of substance," the woman said.
A source close to the official investigation of the case has told NBC17 that the accuser might have been drugged at the party.
The second dancer declined to discuss specifics of what happened at the party.
"If I could see the future and would have known what that night would've brought, I would have paid more attention. I wish I had paid more attention to everything that happened around me," she said.
The woman admitted calling 911 to report racial epithets yelled at her and the accuser as they left the party. But she said the details of the incident became jumbled in her call because she was trying to hide the fact that she had been performing at the party.
The woman said her parents don't know she makes a living as an exotic dancer, and she was afraid the information would be made public if she had been upfront with the 911 dispatcher.
"The defense feels like they can say anything they want to because they know we don't want to put ourselves out there," the woman said, noting that defense attorneys have implied the two dancers hatched a plan to accuse the lacrosse players to extort money from them. "They know that we don't want to go on any news channels and put our faces in front of thousands of people."
But the woman said she decided to speak out because she has tired of statements made by defense attorneys since last week, when DNA tests failed to link any of the lacrosse team members to the accuser.
"I have every confidence in the (district attorney) and the police," the woman said. "I honestly feel like they wouldn't be investigating a crime if they didn't feel a crime had occurred." ...I believe the answer to seized item #28 is "pills." And it appears that both 911 calls were in fact made by this second dancer, who we should now assume is "Kim," the one with the "Black friend." She fudged some details in her first 9i11 call to cover up her dancing job.
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Tags: Duke rape case, Duke, Lacrosse |
posted by JReid @ 9:04 PM   |
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