Duke Lacrosse team rapes a woman???

[Patroklos]

Where did you get that confirmed DNA story?

To add to the think know

4.) ATM records of one of them making withdrawls during time of said rape.

5.) Taxi driver going to testify that one was not even there.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/04/20/duke.cabbie/index.html

[Gibsie]

http://www.newsobserver.com/1185/story/430430.html

Though I doubt they're going to come back positive.

[Zylka]

The ruling

Two words:

OCCUPATIONAL HAZARD

If you want to be a stripper or a who**, you've gotta learn to blag it with the roughest of 'em! I mean come on.. this girl honestly thinks the money is that much better than serving tables because it's a more skilled profession, or something???

It's tough. But it's also the 'hetero' game for gays. FACT.

[Patroklos]

I want to know what stripper goes to the college team party of more than 40 people at a private venue and does not bring a protection dude?

[KrazyHorse]

Who the hell rapes a stripper and then doesn't have the sense to kill her afterward?

[Zylka]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

[rah]

Yeah, I can just see her on the stand.
"have you ever had sex during any of parties that you were paid to strip at"
"yes"
"how many times"
"I can't count that High"

[SpencerH]

Whether she was raped or not is unclear, IMO. OTOH its damn clear that these two didnt do it. It is yet another case of a politically motivated Democrat DA bringing "politically correct" charges to further their careers.

As I was flipping by the channels wednesday I saw Sharpton comment that this case parallels that of Amadou Diallo. Sharptons take on that case was that the police were guilty despite that a racially mixed jury found otherwise. White police shot a black man, they're guilty, never mind the facts!

[Gibsie]

Originally posted by rah
Yeah, I can just see her on the stand.
"have you ever had sex during any of parties that you were paid to strip at"
"yes"
"how many times"
"I can't count that High"

It's a shame you're not allowed to answer facetiously when you're on the stand, with something like, "less that the number of times it takes for a woman to lose her right to say no to sex".

[Pyrodrew]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12415388/
2nd stripper now believes accuser's story
DURHAM, N.C. - At first, a stripper who performed at a Duke University lacrosse team party doubted the story of a colleague who told police she was dragged into a bathroom and raped.

Now, Kim Roberts isn’t so sure.

“I was not in the bathroom when it happened, so I can’t say a rape occurred — and I never will,” Roberts told The Associated Press on Thursday in her first on-the-record interview. But after watching defense attorneys release photos of the accuser, and upset by the leaking of both dancers’ criminal pasts, she said she has to “wonder about their character.”

“In all honesty, I think they’re guilty,” she said. “And I can’t say which ones are guilty ... but somebody did something besides underage drinking. That’s my honest-to-God impression.”

Attorneys for the 46 players have aggressively proclaimed the players’ innocence, citing DNA tests during a public campaign that has included describing and releasing photos from the party.

Those photos, the defense maintains, show the accuser was both injured and impaired when she arrived, and also support the claim that one of the two players who has been indicted would not have had enough time to participate in any assault before he left the party. The district attorney has said he also hopes to charge a third suspect in the case.

The attorneys claim Roberts at first told a member of the defense team that she did not believe the accuser’s allegations. They say she has changed her story to gain favorable treatment in a criminal case against her. They note she also e-mailed a New York public relations firm, asking in her letter for advice on “how to spin this to my advantage.”

“We believe ... her story has been motivated by her own self-interest,” said attorney Bill Thomas, who represents one of the uncharged players. “I think that a jury will ultimately have to decide the question of her credibility.”

Roberts, 31, was arrested on March 22 — eight days after the party — on a probation violation from a 2001 conviction for embezzling $25,000 from a photofinishing company in Durham where she was a payroll specialist, according to documents obtained by the AP.

On Monday, the same day a grand jury indicted lacrosse players Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty, a judge agreed to a change so that Roberts would no longer have to pay a 15 percent fee to a bonding agent. District Attorney Mike Nifong signed a document saying he would not oppose the change.

“It seems she is receiving very favorable financial treatment for what she is now saying,” Thomas said.

Mark Simeon, Roberts’ attorney, said the bond conditions were changed because Roberts is not considered a flight risk. Nifong, who hasn’t spoken with reporters about the case in weeks, didn’t return a call seeking comment.

Roberts’ testimony could be vital during any trial of the two sophomores, indicted on charges of first-degree rape, sexual offense and kidnapping.

Other than lacrosse players and the accuser, a 27-year-old student at a nearby university, Roberts is believed to be the only other person at the March 13 party.

Roberts said Thursday she does not remember Seligmann’s face, but said she recalls seeing Finnerty — whom she described as the “little skinny one.”

“I was looking him right in the eyes,” she said.

Although she would not talk extensively about the party, she confirmed some of what the other dancer told police — including that the women initially left the party after one of the players threatened to sodomize the women with a broomstick.

The players’ attorneys have said their clients were angry and demanded a refund when the women stopped dancing, but Roberts disputed that.

“They ripped themselves off when they started hollering about a broomstick,” she said.

The accuser told police that the women were coaxed back into the house with an apology, at which point they were separated. That’s when she said she was dragged into a bathroom and raped, beaten and choked for a half hour.

Later, police received a 911 call from a woman complaining that she had been called racial slurs by white men gathered outside the home where the party took place. Roberts acknowledged that she made the call because she was angry.

Roberts drove herself to the party and said she could have left anytime, but she said, “I didn’t want to leave her with them.”

Roberts then drove the accuser — whom she had just met that night — to a grocery store and asked a security guard to call 911. The accuser was described later by a police officer as “just passed-out drunk.”

Roberts said the woman was sober when they arrived at the house. But by the time the party was over, she said the accuser was too incoherent to tell her where she lived, let alone that she had been raped.

“I didn’t do enough,” she said, tears welling in her eyes. “I didn’t do enough. I didn’t do enough.”

The defense timeline is backed up by a cab driver who said Seligmann called for a ride at 12:14 a.m., and was picked up five minutes later. The defense argues that if the dancers were performing around midnight, Seligmann would not have had enough time to participate in the 30-minute assault described by the accuser.

The cabbie, Moez Mostafa, also said he saw a woman leaving the party in anger, and overheard someone say, “She just a stripper. She’s going to call the police.”

“She looked, like, mad,” he said of the woman. “In her face, the way she walked, the way she talked, she looked like mad.”

On Thursday, authorities released warrants detailing their search earlier this week of Finnerty’s and Seligmann’s dorm rooms. Police took a newspaper article and an envelope addressed to Finnerty from his room, and an iPod, various accessories, computer manuals, photos and a CD from Seligmann’s room.

Also Thursday, 5W Public Relations, a New York firm that specializes in “crisis communication,” distributed an e-mail signed “The 2nd Dancer,” and Roberts confirmed she sent it after learning the AP knew her identity.

“I’ve found myself in the center of one of the biggest stories in the country,” she wrote. “I’m worried about letting this opportunity pass me by without making the best of it and was wondering if you had any advice as to how to spin this to my advantage.”

Ronn Torossian, 5W’s president, said he replied, but got no response.

“If this person is indeed who they say they are, I would be happy to speak with her,” said Torossian, whose firm has represented the likes of Sean “Diddy” Combs, Ice Cube and Lil’ Kim.

Roberts, like the accuser a divorced single mother who is black, took umbrage at the notion that she should not try to make something out of her experience. She’s worried that once her name and criminal record are public, no one will want to hire her.

“Why shouldn’t I profit from it?” she asked. “I didn’t ask to be in this position ... I would like to feed my daughter.”

Roberts said she knows what it’s like to sit in jail, and that she would never wrongly accuse an innocent person.

“If the boys are innocent, sorry fellas,” she said. “Sorry you had to go through this.”

But unlike her and the other dancer, she said, they have money to hire the best attorneys.

“If they’re innocent, they will not go to jail,” she said. But, she added, “If the truth is on their side, why are they supporting it with so many lies?”

Roberts is bracing for an all-out attack, but said she’s almost past caring.

“Don’t forget that they called me a damn ******,” she said. “She (the accuser) was passed out in the car. She doesn’t know what she was called. I was called that. I can never forget that.”

Rape Case + Opportunity = Profit
What company wouldn't want to hire her?

[rah]

Originally posted by Gibsie


It's a shame you're not allowed to answer facetiously when you're on the stand, with something like, "less that the number of times it takes for a woman to lose her right to say no to sex".

I'm not saying that she should ever lose her right to say no. I was just commenting on her credibility on the stand. It won't be pretty.

[Gibsie]

Oh yes of course, I just think it's pretty disgusting the way that happens. A woman doesn't even need to be a stripper (or worse) to get made to look like a complete tramp who got everything she deserved by the defence (Take Kobe Bryant's accuser- she'd had sex with another guy recently, so therefore she's a slut! And that's way before it was anywhere close to coming to trial).

[Dis]

but she was a slut.

[Patroklos]

But after watching defense attorneys release photos of the accuser, and upset by the leaking of both dancers’ criminal pasts, she said she has to “wonder about their character.”

So she changed her mind because they released her criminal record, what the hell does that have to do with anything? What a lying *****.

A woman doesn't even need to be a stripper (or worse) to get made to look like a complete tramp who got everything she deserved by the defense

You mean like being immediately assumed guilty because you are a white college frat type with money?

It seems to me that th automatic assumption of guilt in regards to the accused is much more prevelant. I personally believe most rape cases are valid, but that is no excuse.

So since it is obvious this is a completely frivolous accusation, and these guys are paying alot for her nefarious play for attention (and remember one isn't rich), will there be counter

[The Mad Monk]

It just gets better and better...

Duke Rape Case Defense: Throw Out DA Nifong and Photo ID
Motion Filed One Day Before District Attorney's Election

By CHRIS CUOMO, ERIC AVRAM, and LARA SETRAKIAN of the LAW & JUSTICE UNIT

May 1 2006 — Accused Duke lacrosse player Reade Seligmann's attorneys want Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong thrown off the case. Today, they filed a legal motion specifically asking for it.

"DA Mike Nifong neglected his duty as a prosecutor to seek the truth and a fair prosecution," the defense's motion reads.

Six motions and four affidavits were filed just 24 hours before Nifong's Tuesday election in which he's fighting to keep his seat. Nifong is being challenged by former prosecutor Freda Black and private lawyer Keith Bishop.

The motion argues that the election has affected Nifong's approach to the case and accuses him of using the Duke investigation to his political advantage.

"He [Nifong] created a conflict between his professional duties and the search for truth, and his personal vested interest in getting elected," the motion says.

If Nifong loses the election, he could be out of office before the rape trial begins.

An 'Unconstitutional and Illegal' Photo Lineup?

Another motion filed by the defense attacks the photo lineup in which the alleged victim identified Seligmann, co-defendant Collin Finnerty, and a third unknown student as her alleged rapists. The positive identification is the only known evidence connecting the defendants to the alleged crime.

The motion says the photo identification "was unconstitutional and illegal. … It was so unnecessarily suggestive and conducive to irreparable mistakes and misidentification as to deny the defendant due process of law."

Defense lawyers have criticize the validity of the photo lineup, which consisted of a sequence of 46 pictures, all of which were of the Duke lacrosse team members. The lawyers have said the lineup should have included non-lacrosse players.

In today's motion, Seligmann's lawyers criticized Nifong's involvement in the lineup.

"He ignored the actual facts and improperly injected himself in the photographic lineup proceedings, which violates police policy," the motion reads.

An independent expert contacted by ABC News echoed defense arguments that the police lineup had serious flaws. Gary Wells, an Iowa State University experimental social psychologist, described the lineup as "a multiple choice test without any wrong answers." He said including photos of nonsuspects — which he called "fillers" — checked the alleged victim's credibility by requiring her to choose people who actually could have committed the crime.

Defense: Who Was the Alleged Victim Calling That Night?

The motions filed also requested the accuser's cell phone records. It is unclear what purpose this would serve in the investigation. To date, Seligmann's cell phone records, seen by ABC news, have figured prominently as part of his alibi defense.

In the motion, defense lawyers argue that the accuser's telephone "contains valuable information including records of calls made, received, address books and saved voicemail messages. This information may constitute or lead to important impeachment or other exculpatory evidence."

If that information is provided to the defense, the accuser's phone records could tell where she was before arriving at the lacrosse team party. The defense timeline has her arriving at 610 N. Buchanan at 11:45 p.m. At roughly 11:50 p.m., Jason Bissey, a neighbor who lives next door to the house where the party took place, saw the accuser walking to the backyard entrance of the house.

Last week, Seligmann's attorney, J. Kirk Osborn, filed a motion requesting documents that detail the accuser's personal, medical, criminal, and educational history. Those materials, routinely requested by defense lawyers in rape cases, were sought in order to assess and attack the accuser's credibility on the grounds that she "has more than one version of her story & disputed by irrefutable facts."

Today's motions also request a reduction of Seligmann's bond from $400,000 to $40,000. The case has been so widely publicized, the defense team argues, that Seligmann can hardly go anywhere without being recognized. Therefore, he should not be considered a flight risk.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/LegalCenter/story?id=1909167

The really fun part in bold.

Can someone remind me why these students are going through hell?

That prosecutor needs a *****slapping.