If it gets shut down, oh well-Duke LAX team not a match

[Stephen Joseph 0]

Audiotape of the call to police has the policeman arriving on the scene at 1:30 AM saying that she was drunk and passed out, but appeared fine.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/14/sports/s...al1/14duke.html

 

DURHAM, N.C., April 13 (AP) — The woman who said she was raped by members of the Duke men's lacrosse team was described as "just passed-out drunk" by one of the first police officers to see her, according to a recording of radio traffic obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.

 

The conversation between the officer and a police dispatcher took place about 1:30 a.m. on March 14, about five minutes after a grocery store security guard called 911 to report a woman in the parking lot who would not get out of a car.

 

The officer gave the dispatcher the police code for an intoxicated person and said the woman was unconscious. When asked whether the woman needed medical help, the officer said: "She's breathing and appears to be fine. She's not in distress. She's just passed-out drunk."

 

The woman, a 27-year-old college student, told police she was raped and beaten by three men around midnight at an off-campus party held by Duke's lacrosse team.

 

No charges have been filed, but Michael B. Nifong, the Durham County district attorney, has said he believes a crime was committed. Lawyers for the players have said that DNA tests failed to connect any players to the alleged attack, and they have urged Nifong to drop his investigation.

 

The radio recording is consistent with "what I have seen of the photo evidence before," said Kerry Sutton, one of the defense lawyers. She said those photos, time-stamped and taken by the players, showed that the accuser was "way beyond where you would put somebody behind the wheel of a car."

 

The description of the woman's medical exam — which Nifong has said is his basis for believing a rape occurred — does not mention her being drunk. It states only that the woman's injuries and behavior were consistent with having been raped, sexually assaulted and having suffered a traumatic experience.

 

A police spokeswoman, Kammie Michael, declined to comment about the contents of the radio traffic.

 

Several of the defense lawyers said they expected Nifong to ask a grand jury on Monday to issue charges in connection with allegations.

 

There has been no official word, however, on whether Nifong intends to present the allegations Monday. His next opportunity would be two weeks later.

[Ripper 0]

See...shit like this is what I am talking about.

 

The guy calls the cops saying someone won't get out of the car...he thinks she is drunk. The officer gets there and finds her passed out and believes that she is indeed drunk because of what the guy who called the cops said. So instead of saying "The officer was making an assuption" it is being reported that "Yeah...she was drunk...the cop said so".

 

Ri-damn-diculous.

[JustJoe2k5 0]

See...shit like this is what I am talking about.

 

The guy calls the cops saying someone won't get out of the car...he thinks she is drunk. The officer gets there and finds her passed out and believes that she is indeed drunk because of what the guy who called the cops said. So instead of saying "The officer was making an assuption" it is being reported that "Yeah...she was drunk...the cop said so".

 

Ri-damn-diculous.

 

What portion of this case hasn't been wacky? The lady says she was raped, but can't distinguish between any of the players other than the fact that they were all white. DNA results return and reveal there is no physical link between the stripper and the players. Pictures have shown that she was in rough shape before she showed up at the house. Jesse Jackson wants the "criminals" to be put to justice, when there is absolutely no solid proof that anything happened. It has been a strange case from the get-go.

 

I believe the woman was roughed up prior to the party. Was she raped? I don't know, but I don't believe she was raped at the party by any of the members of the lacrosse team. I believe she showed up to the party in terrible shape, didn't do her job properly, and the players decided not to pay her as much as she would've liked. What does she do to get back at them? Accuse them of rape. It sounds terrible, but that is what the world has come to.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

The thread was fine until the end. Then it just got out of control.

 

Man, and I missed the good part.

[Ripper 0]

See...shit like this is what I am talking about.

 

The guy calls the cops saying someone won't get out of the car...he thinks she is drunk. The officer gets there and finds her passed out and believes that she is indeed drunk because of what the guy who called the cops said. So instead of saying "The officer was making an assuption" it is being reported that "Yeah...she was drunk...the cop said so".

 

Ri-damn-diculous.

 

What portion of this case hasn't been wacky? The lady says she was raped, but can't distinguish between any of the players other than the fact that they were all white. DNA results return and reveal there is no physical link between the stripper and the players. Pictures have shown that she was in rough shape before she showed up at the house. Jesse Jackson wants the "criminals" to be put to justice, when there is absolutely no solid proof that anything happened. It has been a strange case from the get-go.

 

I believe the woman was roughed up prior to the party. Was she raped? I don't know, but I don't believe she was raped at the party by any of the members of the lacrosse team. I believe she showed up to the party in terrible shape, didn't do her job properly, and the players decided not to pay her as much as she would've liked. What does she do to get back at them? Accuse them of rape. It sounds terrible, but that is what the world has come to.

 

A: no Pictures have been shown. The defense claims they have some.

B: The Evidence is that medical examiners determined that she had been sexually assualted, the woman belongs (including the money made for the party) along with some ripped off fingernails in the bathroom is physcial evidence linking the players (who where supposedly the lone attendees of the party.

C: I don't see how anyone can come up with any type of assumptions, let alone what you have come up with.

 

 

Was she raped...I don't know. DId these guys do it. I don't know. You don't either. The defense's job is to destroy the credibility of the accuser while the prosecution isn't allowed to destroy the credibility of the accused, so through the media, in all cases like this you will get the defense just teeing off on the accuser and no response. When the case is made, when all the evidence is brought forward, then I will be able to form a opinion, but a bunch of sensasionalist reporting isn't enough for me to say guilt or innocence, and it certainly isn't enough for me to come up with that scenario that you presented either.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

^ Yeah. God, I hate the way sexual assault cases play out publicly.

[Stephen Joseph 0]

Well, who made this case public initially?

 

I'm inclined to think it was the minority community. So basically, by bringing this to the national media, they helped this girl get dragged through the mud so much easier

[jesse_ewiak 0]

Yes, because God knows a story about a bunch of _white_ college kids allegedly raping a _black_ woman would never get the attention of the media without those uppity minorities.

[JustJoe2k5 0]

I already think we've already seen the racial biased in this case. When Kobe Bryant was accused of rape, did they do anything to the Lakers? They even let Kobe Bryant continue to play for the team. Duke Lacrosse is accused of rape, they cancel the season, may cancel next season, the coach resigns, and most of the players are transferring. People can cry about racism all they want, but if this had been a majority African American team the NAACP would've never allowed the school to shutdown the sport.

[snuffbox 0]

Well, who made this case public initially?

 

I'm inclined to think it was the minority community. So basically, by bringing this to the national media, they helped this girl get dragged through the mud so much easier

 

You dont think it might have been the media seeing a story that would draw viewers?...

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

I already think we've already seen the racial biased in this case. When Kobe Bryant was accused of rape, did they do anything to the Lakers? They even let Kobe Bryant continue to play for the team. Duke Lacrosse is accused of rape, they cancel the season, may cancel next season, the coach resigns, and most of the players are transferring. People can cry about racism all they want, but if this had been a majority African American team the NAACP would've never allowed the school to shutdown the sport.

I think your racial hyperbole ignores the fact that Kobe (likely rapist that he was) was a professional being paid for his work, and the actual assessment of penalty. These Duke kids are all amateurs, some on scholarship, some not, playing at the discretion of Duke University. Duke's administration made these decisions, not some outside force. You can't really "do" anything to the Lakers in the situation they faced.

[Guest Sylvan Grenier]

I already think we've already seen the racial biased in this case.

Interesting case of overcorrection here; I guess he's seen too many of us flip out at "he's just bias"

[Ripper 0]

I already think we've already seen the racial biased in this case. When Kobe Bryant was accused of rape, did they do anything to the Lakers? They even let Kobe Bryant continue to play for the team. Duke Lacrosse is accused of rape, they cancel the season, may cancel next season, the coach resigns, and most of the players are transferring. People can cry about racism all they want, but if this had been a majority African American team the NAACP would've never allowed the school to shutdown the sport.

If any college team gets exposed as having a drunken stripper party, and it gets put in the press, they are going to be suspended.

 

Seriously, how many players probably have done the same, black or white. But if it gets put in the press, the school has to react like they are shocked and dismayed. It happens ALL the time in sports, so this crap about "if they were black" is bullshit.

 

If this was a majority African American team accused of raping and beating a white girl, you are going to honestly going to say that the school wouldn't have done the same thing? Get off it. Georgia suspended the entire Georgia Basketball team before the tournament and they were all black. The NAACP wasn't there then.

 

 

And Popick, seriously, minorities don't have that much pull in the media. This was made a big deal because this was a big school and a top ranked Lacrosse team. If this was East Cobb Community College's Flag Football team and it was the same scenario, it would have gotten one local news clip and that would have been it.

[JustJoe2k5 0]

You believe the NAACP wouldn't petition the NCAA to reinstate the team's season if there were a few more African American players on the team? I know they would. And I know the NCAA would most likely make it happen. After the DNA results proved that there wasn't any physical evidence to link the players with the woman, there isn't much of a case left to think these players did something wrong. I heard Jesse Jackson say that they should try and arrest the criminals as soon as possible, what he failed to mention was the fact that there aren't any criminals to arrest at the moment. Wonder if he would feel the same way in the exact same situation where the players on the team were African Americans? I don't think so.

[Ripper 0]

I repeat, in no "what if" scenario, the ENTIRE GEORGIA BASKETBALL TEAM WAS SUSPENDED AND CONSISTED OF ALL BLACK PLAYERS AND NOONE FILED ANYTHING.

 

They had a party full of alcohol and a stripper. Marcus Vick got suspended for the whole year because of it. In this case the ENTIRE GODDAMNED TEAM WAS THERE. This has nothing to do with black and white. If the school gets embarrassed(and the whole world knowing your Lacrosse team was having a drunken stripper attending party is embrassing) then they will act swiftly and decisively to show that they are against it.

[Guest Sylvan Grenier]

Ripper's schtick is one of the board's most tiresome, but Just Joe is talking out his ass on this one.

[Ripper 0]

Who the fuck are you?

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

I think it's Czech under a different username.

[Guest NYankees]

Well 2 athletes are being indicted today.

[bobobrazil1984 0]

I wonder what sets these two particular players apart from the others. Is there some specific reason, what sort of evidence, if any, do they have on the two and not on the others?

[naiwf 0]

I wonder what sets these two particular players apart from the others. Is there some specific reason, what sort of evidence, if any, do they have on the two and not on the others?

 

She ID'd them from photos with "100% certainty". The third guy she identified only had a "90% certainty".

[Guest The Satanic Angel]

From CNN.com..

 

Prosecutor seeks ID of 3rd suspect in Duke rape case

Two lacrosse players charged with rape, kidnapping

 

Tuesday, April 18, 2006; Posted: 2:01 p.m. EDT (18:01 GMT)

 

DURHAM, North Carolina (CNN) -- Two Duke University lacrosse team members were charged Tuesday in the rape of a woman hired to dance at a team party, and the district attorney is trying to determine the identity of a third suspect.

 

Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty, both sophomores, are charged with first-degree forcible rape, first-degree sexual offense and kidnapping, officials said.

 

District Attorney Mike Nifong said authorities were trying to gather sufficient evidence to identity a third suspect. (Watch CNN's Jeffrey Toobin explain the legal options -- 2:15)

 

"It had been my hope to be able to charge all three of the assailants at the same time, but the evidence available to me at this moment does not permit that," Nifong said.

 

"It is important that we not only bring the assailants to justice but also that we lift the cloud of suspicion from those team members who were not involved in the assault."

 

Kirk Osborn, one of Seligmann's attorneys, said lawyers arranged the surrender of the two men early Tuesday.

 

"It's hard to put in words the unfairness and injustice," Osborn said. "We look forward [to] showing he is absolutely innocent as soon as we can."

 

Sources close to the investigation told CNN Tuesday that the defense will present evidence -- including ATM receipts and a cab driver -- that neither Seligmann, 20, nor Finnerty, 19, were at the team party at the time the alleged rape took place.

 

Deputies brought Seligmann and Finnerty to Durham County jail just before 5 a.m. ET., and they were fingerprinted and photographed.

 

Seligmann waived his right to appear in court and was represented by his attorneys. Finnerty made a brief court appearance. Both men posted $400,000 bail. Their next court date is May 15.

 

Upon leaving jail, Seligmann ran with another man to a Ford Explorer with New Jersey license plates, The (Raleigh) News & Observer reported. The vehicle then ran a red light, according to the paper.

 

The newspaper identified Seligmann's hometown as Essex Fells, New Jersey, and Finnerty's as Garden City, New York.

 

In November, Finnerty was arrested on assault charges in Washington, according to the paper. Citing his attorney, the paper said Finnerty had been ordered to perform community service and the charges would be dropped if he performs the service and avoids new arrests.

 

A grand jury in North Carolina returned sealed indictments Monday against Seligmann and Finnerty.

 

A 27-year-old student at North Carolina Central University told police three men raped and beat her March 13 at an off-campus party thrown by Duke lacrosse players.

 

She and another woman were hired to perform as dancers there. The case has inflamed racial and economic divisions in Durham, which is home to both the accuser's historically black public university and the elite Duke. She is African-American; the accused are white.

 

Court documents filed in the case have said a medical examination of the accuser showed signs consistent with sexual assault. DNA samples from the players failed to match material collected by investigators, defense attorneys hired by some of the players said last week.

 

The defense lawyers also said photos taken at the party show the woman was injured before she arrived.

 

The allegations have resulted in the cancellation of the lacrosse season, the resignation of the team's coach, Mike Pressler, and public scrutiny of what Duke President Richard Brodhead called the "history of boorish behavior and underage drinking" among players.

[Dangerous A 0]

And we get more twists in this story. From ESPN.com...

 

 

Accuser claimed she was raped in 1996 report

 

Associated Press

 

 

DURHAM, N.C. -- A jury might never hear about the rape allegations made to police 10 years ago by the exotic dancer who says she was raped last month by three Duke University lacrosse players, a prosecutor said Friday.

 

District Attorney Mike Nifong said North Carolina's rape shield law lists "narrowly defined categories" under which evidence of an accuser's past sexual history is allowed as evidence. The court must hold a hearing to determine if the evidence meets those categories and to decide how it can be presented.

 

"In short, the jury that decides this case may or may not hear the 'evidence,"' Nifong said.

 

"The media are not bound by the same rules that govern our courts," he said. "Their decisions on what to report and how they report it [can] have a substantial impact on the ability of our system to effectuate justice. That impact is often positive. Unfortunately, it can also be negative."

 

In the 1996 report, the woman claims she was raped and beaten by three men when she was 14 years old. Authorities said none of the men named in the report was ever charged with sexual assault in nearby Granville County, where the woman said she was attacked.

 

Nifong's office contacted Creedmoor police Friday morning, seeking information about the incident report, said Mayor Darryl Moss. He and police Chief Ted Pollard said officials there are continuing to look for additional records, but have so far been unable to locate any other paperwork.

 

Relatives told Essence magazine in an online story this week that the woman declined to pursue the case out of fear for her safety.

 

A phone number for the accuser has been disconnected, and her father said Thursday night he remembered little about the incident except going with police to a home where he said his daughter was being held "against her will."

 

The existence of the earlier rape report surprised defense attorneys in the Duke case, who have sought information about the woman's past for use in attacking her credibility.

 

"That's the very first I've heard of that," said Bill Cotter, the attorney for indicted lacrosse player Collin Finnerty. He declined additional comment.

 

Finnerty and fellow Duke player Reade Seligmann are charged with first-degree rape, kidnapping and sexual assault and face a hearing May 15.

 

The accuser is a 27-year-old student at North Carolina Central University in Durham who told police she was hired to dance at a March 13 party.

 

Seligmann's legal team earlier this week filed a motion seeking her medical, legal and education records. The lawyers also asked for a pretrial hearing to determine if she is credible.

 

According to the Creedmoor police report in August 1996, when the woman was 18, she told officers she was raped and beaten by three men "for a continual time" in 1993. She told police she was attacked at an "unspecified location" on a street in Creedmoor, a town 15 miles northeast of Durham.

 

Asked Thursday if she was sexually assaulted, her father said, "I can't remember." In an interview with the News & Observer of Raleigh, posted Thursday night on the newspaper's Web site, he said the men "didn't do anything to her."

 

The report lists the names of the three men, but no other details.

 

Durham police Officer Brian Bishop, who interviewed the accuser in 1996 while working on the Creedmoor force, said Thursday he had a vague recollection of the report. He said he could not remember any details. Reached Friday, Bishop said he could no longer discuss the case.

 

Before Seligmann and Finnerty were indicted, attorneys for the players pointed to the accuser's criminal history when answering questions about their clients' legal troubles. The woman pleaded guilty to several misdemeanors in 2002.

[Conspiracy_Victim 0]

Wow, you mean she was attacked, kidnapped, and raped BEFORE this time? What are the odds? She's got horrible luck.

[Guest NYankees]

Wow, you mean she was attacked, kidnapped, and raped BEFORE this time? What are the odds? She's got horrible luck.

 

Maybe it's because she puts herself in situations that women shouldn't be putting themselves into. I dont think it's smart for any stripper to go to a party with 40 fucking guys and be one of only two women and not even bring a male escort to make sure everything is a ok.

[the max 0]

Wow, you mean she was attacked, kidnapped, and raped BEFORE this time? What are the odds? She's got horrible luck.

 

Maybe it's because she puts herself in situations that women shouldn't be putting themselves into. I dont think it's smart for any stripper to go to a party with 40 fucking guys and be one of only two women and not even bring a male escort to make sure everything is a ok.

 

Yeah, bitches are always starting shit man. It's obviously her fault she got raped.

[Guest NYankees]

Wow, you mean she was attacked, kidnapped, and raped BEFORE this time? What are the odds? She's got horrible luck.

 

Maybe it's because she puts herself in situations that women shouldn't be putting themselves into. I dont think it's smart for any stripper to go to a party with 40 fucking guys and be one of only two women and not even bring a male escort to make sure everything is a ok.

 

Yeah, bitches are always starting shit man. It's obviously her fault she got raped.

 

 

I never said it was her fault for being raped. I said she put herself in that situation for going to a party with another stripper and being one of only two women with 40 men. She should have brought protection in that of a male escort/pimp. You have no clue the history of the 40 men at the party or what kind of bullshit they are going to pull. If she had brought some protection with her, she wouldn't be in this posistion.

[the max 0]

Wow, you mean she was attacked, kidnapped, and raped BEFORE this time? What are the odds? She's got horrible luck.

 

Maybe it's because she puts herself in situations that women shouldn't be putting themselves into. I dont think it's smart for any stripper to go to a party with 40 fucking guys and be one of only two women and not even bring a male escort to make sure everything is a ok.

 

Yeah, bitches are always starting shit man. It's obviously her fault she got raped.

 

 

I never said it was her fault for being raped. I said she put herself in that situation for going to a party with another stripper and being one of only two women with 40 men. She should have brought protection in that of a male escort/pimp. You have no clue the history of the 40 men at the party or what kind of bullshit they are going to pull. If she had brought some protection with her, she wouldn't be in this posistion.

 

For all we know, she might have thought that she didn't need protection; Maybe she thought it was going to be a small party with a few guys, but by the time she got there, she had no way to leave. Who knows? I don't and neither do you.

[Vampiro69 0]

I would love to see the odds that Vegas is giving on whether the LXR players will e found guilty or not guilty.

[Boon 0]

Just for kicks.