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   Attorneys: No DNA matches in Duke lacrosse scandal

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Topic: Attorneys: No DNA matches in Duke lacrosse scandal (Read 23582 times)

Rhune
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Attorneys: No DNA matches in Duke lacrosse scandal
« on: Apr 10^th, 2006, 6:48pm »

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Attorneys: No DNA matches in Duke lacrosse scandal
Posted: Monday April 10, 2006 5:53PM; Updated: Monday April 10, 2006 6:59PM

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) -- DNA testing failed to connect any members of the Duke University lacrosse team to the alleged rape of a stripper, attorneys for the athletes said Monday.

Citing DNA test results delivered by the state crime lab to police and prosecutors a few hours earlier, the attorneys said the test results prove their clients did not sexually assault and beat a stripper hired to perform at a March 13 team party.

No charges have been filed in the case.

"No DNA material from any young man was present on the body of this complaining woman," said defense attorney Wade Smith.

The alleged victim, a 27-year-old student at a nearby college, told police she and another woman were hired to dance at the party. The woman told police that three men at the party dragged her into a bathroom, choked her, raped her and sodomized her.

Authorities ordered 46 of the 47 players on Duke's lacrosse team to submit DNA samples to investigators. Because the woman said her attackers were white, the team's sole black player was not tested.

District Attorney Mike Nifong stopped speaking with reporters last week after initially talking openly about the case, including stating publicly that he was confident a crime occurred. He went on to say he would have other evidence to make his case should the DNA analysis prove inconclusive or fail to match a member of the team.

Smith said Nifong now has the evidence needed to change his mind.

"He doesn't have to do it," Smith said of filing charges. "He is a man with discretion. He doesn't have to do it, and we hope that he won't."

Nifong's assistant said earlier Monday the prosecutor would not comment on the findings. North Carolina Central University, where the alleged victim is a student, said after the results were released that the prosecutor would appear at a campus forum on Tuesday to discuss the case.

Attorney Joe Cheshire, who represents one of the team's captains, said the report indicated authorities took DNA samples from all over the alleged victim's body, including under her fingernails, and from her possessions, such as her cell phone and her clothes.

"They swabbed about every place they could possibly swab from her, in which there could be any DNA," he said.

Cheshire said even if the alleged attackers used a condom, it's likely there would have been some DNA evidence found suggesting an assault took place. He said in this case, the report states there was no DNA on her to indicate that she had sex of any type recently.

"The experts will tell you that if there was a condom used they would still be able to pick up DNA, latex, lubricant and all other types of things to show that -- and that's not here," Cheshire said.

Stan Goldman, who teaches criminal law, evidence and criminal procedure at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, said the DNA results don't mean that Nifong can't go forward with the case -- but the test results make a successful prosecution much harder.

"Isn't the absence of DNA evidence, given the way the victim has described the crime, in and of itself almost enough to raise a reasonable doubt?" he said. "That's all the defense has to do."

Robert Archer, whose son, Breck, is a member of the lacrosse team, said the test results only confirmed for parents what they already knew.

"I know the kids on the team and I know they're innocent," said Archer, of East Quogue, N.Y.

Copyright 2006 Associated Press.

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Jeff
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Re: Attorneys: No DNA matches in Duke lacrosse sca
« Reply #1 on: Apr 13^th, 2006, 4:20pm »

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First off, I do believe the girl was raped. Three fingernails lodged in a bed frame does not happen from consensual sex unless you have something rotten in the noggin'.

However, what has happenned to the laccross team is a gross abuse of power by the DA and is utterly horrible. They paraded the laccross team in, stripped them naked and shot photos of them. They posted the boys' pictures all over the TV accusing them of rape. If some of them did rape the girl, then they'll get what's coming to them. However, I very highly doubt that all 64 boys raped the girl and probably had nothing to do with it.

Have you ever been to one of these parties? The music is always blaring and you can't hear a thig unless the person is right next to you and speaking loudly. If the woman was being raped in another room, these boys would not hear her screams.

The rights of the woman were horribly stripped away when she was raped, but that is absolutely not an excuse to strip away the rights of these 64 guys without due process of law.

Too bad I'm just out of district because I want to vote against this horrible DA in his upcoming election.

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Rhune
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Re: Attorneys: No DNA matches in Duke lacrosse sca
« Reply #2 on: Apr 13^th, 2006, 4:32pm »

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To the best of my knowledge, from what I have read, the fingernails were found on the bathroom floor, not wedged in a bed frame. The alleged rape occured in the bathroom. Now, according to another report I read, there are time stamped photos that show she had the bruises on her when she arrived at the party, and there was no DNA evidence. A bunch of scenarios cross my mind at this point...she was raped, but object raped so there was no DNA, she was on drugs and freaked out in the bathroom dislodging the nails and whatnot and in her drug induced state she thought she was being raped, she was raped prior to the party and either decided it was better to frame these guys, or again was on drugs and confused as to when it happend, there's just so many scenarios here. It just smacks me as odd that there was NO male dna anywhere on her, not even under her fingernails (and she stated she scratched the crap out of the attackers), and no evidence of condoms having been used, no lubricants, etc. Something isn't right here. I would also think since all the males were photographed, that scratches would show up on them, if she had in fact scratched any of them. I guess I'm leaning towards drug freak-out in the bathroom and she scratched at the walls, dislodging some of the fingernails (which also didn't have dna on them), and then took off leaving her purse and phone there, genuinely believing she was attacked. If there is evidence the bruises were there when she arrived, the vaginal trauma may have been from earlier in the day as well.

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Jeff
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Re: Attorneys: No DNA matches in Duke lacrosse sca
« Reply #3 on: Apr 13^th, 2006, 4:58pm »

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Oh, well, I missed where she was allegedly raped at. I was watching The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch when I heard the location, so I must have misheard something.

Either way, I still think the treatment of the accused is a case of a gross violation of rights and the due process of law. These boys are being humiliated for something they may not have even done. Even if they are found innocent, do you think that everyone will look at them the same way? Nope. There are talk shows done all the time about people who were accused of rape and found innocent, but it still destroyed their lives because people always had that doubt about them and couldn't trust them anymore.

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Rhune
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Re: Attorneys: No DNA matches in Duke lacrosse sca
« Reply #4 on: Apr 13^th, 2006, 8:48pm »

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I can see that. On the other hand it doesn't help their case much that one of them wrote an e-mail after the incident talking about how they would invite more strippers over again and kill them this time. I understand he made the e-mail in anger, but it's a pretty gross e-mail and will only add to the way people treat ALL of these boys afterward.

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Pocket
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Re: Attorneys: No DNA matches in Duke lacrosse sca
« Reply #5 on: Apr 13^th, 2006, 10:56pm »

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Unfortunately, there's no law against stupidity, Rhune.

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Rhune
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Re: Attorneys: No DNA matches in Duke lacrosse sca
« Reply #6 on: Apr 13^th, 2006, 11:08pm »

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No, and I don't think he did anything illegal by writing that, but it will definitely reflect badly on the whole team that he did. Their coach resigned same day that came out in the press and the rest of the Lacross season cancelled. I just think it will cause people who can't let go of the idea that they might be guilty to treat them worse as a result. The e-mail was a stupid thing to write, and said uncomfortable things.

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Rhune
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Re: Attorneys: No DNA matches in Duke lacrosse sca
« Reply #7 on: Apr 13^th, 2006, 11:10pm »

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In the car on the way to work tonight they played on the radio (news radio) the recording of the officer who picked her up and was taking her into the station, and he comments in it that she is just falling down drunk. It's in the car that she reported the alleged rape. Maybe she said it to get out of jail time...

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Rhune
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Re: Attorneys: No DNA matches in Duke lacrosse sca
« Reply #8 on: Apr 16^th, 2006, 1:06pm »

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Jesse Jackson's group to pay alleged victim's tuition

Sunday, April 16, 2006; Posted: 8:31 a.m. EDT (12:31 GMT)

DURHAM, North Carolina (AP) -- The Rev. Jesse Jackson said Saturday his Rainbow/PUSH Coalition would pay the college tuition of a black woman who alleges white members of the Duke University lacrosse team raped her.

The 27-year-old woman, a student at North Carolina Central University, told police she and another woman were hired to strip dance at a team party. The woman told police that three men at the party dragged her into a bathroom and raped her March 13.

No one has been charged in the case, but the allegations have rocked the community. Jackson he has yet to speak with the woman, but said his group pledged to pay for her tuition even if her story proves false.

The woman should be able to support her two children and pay her tuition without having "to sacrifice her body to make money."

The prosecutor has said he believes a crime was committed at the party, citing a medical exam that found the woman's injuries and behavior were consistent with being raped.

Attorneys for the players have said DNA tests failed to connect any players to the attack, and they have urged the prosecutor to drop his investigation. But several defense attorneys say they expect the district attorney to ask a grand jury Monday to indict one or more of the players.

But in a phone interview with The Associated Press, Jackson said he believed there was enough circumstantial evidence indicating something happened to the woman.

"There's more evidence that violence occurred to her than she's the lead of a hoax," Jackson said.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press.

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Re: Attorneys: No DNA matches in Duke lacrosse sca
« Reply #9 on: Apr 17^th, 2006, 1:39pm »

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Photos Offer Some Insight About Duke Lacrosse Team Party

from the Raleigh News & Observer
UPDATED: 10:38 am EDT April 17, 2006

DURHAM, N.C. -- One day before possible indictments of some of Duke University men's lacrosse players, defense attorneys stood behind what they have maintained for more than a month: no sexual assault took place during a party at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd. in the early-morning hours of March 14.

Attorneys have said that DNA taken from 46 lacrosse athletes failed to match DNA evidence taken from an exotic dancer who says she was raped, sodomized and beaten for 30 minutes by three team members.

In addition, defense attorneys have said that time-stamped photos taken at the party on the night in question prove their clients' innocence. For the first time Sunday, news reporters got a look at the photos, which were taken with a digital camera with an internal time stamp.

Sources said the 19 photos, taken between 11:02 p.m. and 12:41 a.m. by a person they would not identify, matched watches in the photographs.

The first photo, taken at 11:02 p.m., shows young men sitting around and drinking.

Another photo, taken at midnight, is the first picture of the two dancers, including the accuser, who were hired to dance at the party. The accuser is dressed in a pink and white negligee. Attorneys have said that although the women were given at least one drink at the party, they believe the accuser was already impaired when she arrived at the party.

Pictures taken over the next few minutes show the women on top of one another other. The photos also show what appear to be bruises on the accuser's knee. Her right shoe is off, and her press-on nails are missing. The men in the background are sitting back casually watching without much noticeable reaction.

Three minutes after they begin to dance, at 12:03 a.m., the dancers are photographed near the door. Attorneys say they are leaving the party.

More than 25 minutes later, at 12:30 a.m., the accuser is photographed again at the back of the house. She has a purse and her shoe is still missing from her right foot.

Seven minutes later, at 12:37 a.m., the alleged victim is lying on the back stairs. Attorneys have said that they believe she stumbled and fell, which caused some of her cuts and bruises. A tan spot in the photo, they believe, is her purse lying in the back yard.

At 12:41 a.m., attorneys say the accuser gets into the other dancer's car.

There is a gap in the photos from 12:03 a.m. until 12:30 a.m. in which the two dancers were not photographed. Attorneys believe the women were in a bathroom, alone.

One woman, they believe, was changing her clothes during that time, and the accuser may have been painting her fingernails. They believe that because later on, when she fell on the back stairs, there were pink marks on the stairwell.

Another photo does show the accuser about 10 minutes before she left on the stairwell with her mouth open and teeth showing. Defense attorneys say she is smiling, but she is not posing and it is difficult to determine whether she is actually smiling.

Defense attorneys said they had offered to show the pictures to District Attorney Mike Nifong, but he declined to see them.

"As I understand the exchange, as it was reported to me, the DA is not interested in a discussion about our evidence," said defense attorney Bob Ekstrand.

Nifong -- who has come under criticism for both prosecuting the case after DNA results came back negative and for not proceeding with the investigation quickly enough -- has said he believes a sexual assault did occur and that a medical examination of the alleged victim was consistent with a rape.

Just as defense attorneys have said Nifong has not seen their evidence, they do not know what happened after police drove the accuser away.

"Something happened in the interim to cause her to be admitted into the hospital later that morning," Ekstrand said. "And we should be very interested to know what it was."

At 1:22 a.m. on March 14, Durham police received a call from a security guard at a Kroger grocery store located on Hillsborough Road. The guard told the 911 dispatcher that a woman named Kim, believed to be the second dancer at the party, pulled up and was worried about her friend. The guard said the alleged victim did not smell like alcohol, but that she appeared to be drunk.

At about 1:30 a.m., a police officer who responded to the 911 call told a police dispatcher that the woman was drunk, but not in distress. It is not known, however, whether a breathalyzer or any drug tests were conducted.

Adding to the confusion, attorneys said the Kroger security guard told a private investigator for defense attorneys that the second dancer said she merely picked the woman up on the side of the road.

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

IMO, this supposed "rape" case is starting to really smell like week old fish.

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Rhune
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Re: Attorneys: No DNA matches in Duke lacrosse sca
« Reply #10 on: Apr 18^th, 2006, 9:01am »

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Two Duke lacrosse players charged with rape

Tuesday, April 18, 2006; Posted: 8:38 a.m. EDT (12:38 GMT)

DURHAM, North Carolina (CNN) -- Two members of the Duke University lacrosse team were arrested and charged early Tuesday in connection with rape allegations leveled by a woman hired as a dancer at a team party, jail officials said.

Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty, both 20-year-old sophomores, have been charged with first-degree rape, first-degree forcible rape and kidnapping, the officials said. Bond was set for $400,000 for each man.

Deputies brought Seligmann and Finnerty to Durham County jail just before 5 a.m. ET.

Seligmann posted bond and left the jail, but Finnerty, who has been processed, has not done so yet.

The News & Observer identified Seligmann as a student from Essex Falls, New Jersey, and Finnerty as a student from Garden City, New York.

A grand jury returned sealed indictments against the two Monday. Sealed indictments often are used when authorities believe the person charged is a flight risk.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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Rhune
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Re: Attorneys: No DNA matches in Duke lacrosse sca
« Reply #11 on: Apr 18^th, 2006, 9:02am »

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They must feel like they have SOMETHING to have charged these two...obviously they aren't sharing what that is with the public...

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Re: Attorneys: No DNA matches in Duke lacrosse sca
« Reply #12 on: Apr 18^th, 2006, 12:07pm »

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on Apr 18^th, 2006, 9:02am, Rhune wrote:

They must feel like they have SOMETHING to have charged these two...obviously they aren't sharing what that is with the public...

"Probable cause", (not proof or compelling evidence of guilt) is all that is needed to obtain a warrant or a "True Bill of Indictment" at the Grand Jury level. That is not a very high threshold to arrive at.

I am VERY suspect of the worthiness of this case, and the motives of the Prosecutor (who is running for re-election). I am wondering why he did not use the usual and standard way of proceeding with a criminal case. . . that is, seeking an arrest warrant from a judicial magistrate, arresting the individual, and bringing the defendant to a preliminary Court hearing (before the Judge of a General District Court). At this hearing, the accused can be represented by his Attorney. The Prosecutor (the State) presents enough evidence to the Judge to show that the accused could have probably committed the offense (there's that "Probable Cause" thing again!). At that point the JUDGE makes the decision to move forward with the case and send it to a Grand Jury for a "True Bill of Indictment". Then the case receives a court date in CRIMINAL CIRCUIT Court. ALL the evidence from both sides is presented, witnesses are heard, and the defendant has the choice of a decision by Judge or Jury.

Grand Juries are comprised of everyday folk, usually between 12 and 18 in number, and they hear ONLY from the Prosecutor's side. The do not hear the defendant's side of the story, they do not see any evidence. These ordinary citizens do not have any special training/skills/etc. that make them qualified. They only have to be on the voter rolls to serve. The hear only the "shock and awe" statements from the Prosecutor's side. Nothing from the defendant's side.

From my own thirty years of experience in LE, Grand Juries, having only heard one side of the case, almost always certify a case to move forward in the Criminal Justice system. I only know of less than 5 cases out of thousands heard by Grand Juries in my area, that were not given a "True Bill" and moved ahead in the Criminal Justice system.

I am suspect why this particular Prosecutor bypassed the normal way of doing things. An argument can be made for the suspicion that:
A. He has a case so weak that a Judge (trained in the law and rules of evidence) would DISMISS for lack of evidence at the lower General District Court level.

B. The Prosecutor, running for re-election, is grandstanding before the election, KNOWING that Durham is almost 50% Black and that the case will in all likelyhood, be continued and not heard until AFTER the election. The Prosecutor is smart enough to realize that he can placate the black electorate by "being tough" on those preceived "privileged white college boys", be seen by being "tough on crime" by both black and white voters, and forestall any negative fallout from this case until AFTER his re-election.

. . . . .as I said in an earlier post, I think this case smells like week-old fish.

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Rhune
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Re: Attorneys: No DNA matches in Duke lacrosse sca
« Reply #13 on: Apr 19^th, 2006, 10:29am »

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Yeah, I think it stinks too, but I'm wondering why they singled out those two boys specifically, especially when it was claimed there were 3 perpetrators.

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Re: Attorneys: No DNA matches in Duke lacrosse sca
« Reply #14 on: Apr 19^th, 2006, 12:32pm »

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From what I understand, the 'victim' was shown photo line-ups of the various individuals reportedly involved. The 'Victim' made the identification and based on that photo identification, and her statements of what supposedly occurred, warrants were issued.

As one of the Defense Attorneys stated, and I paraphrase, 'we question the reported "victim's" creditability surrounding this event and we were hoping she would pick someone who wasn't even there, and she did!'

From what I have been reading, the individuals she picked out, have pretty compelling evidence that they were not even in the house when the reported "rape" occurred. This alibi evidence includes ATM receipts, cell phone records (which would include the cell tower location), time/date access card electronic door (to the building) documentation, other restaurant receipt evidence, time/date stamped photos taken at the party, etc. from both of the two 'suspects'.

Of course all this evidence will come out in the criminal court hearing but by then the following will have happened. . . .

The various media will have pumped up the situation to the 'sensational' level that it likes . . . . . remember the Petersen trial, the Michael Jackson fiasco, the Blake trial, . . . . . ratings baby, ratings!

Jesse Jackson, the NAACP, Al Sharpton and the rest of the special interest gadflys seeking out the glare of a TV spotlight will have had their 15 minutes of exposure. . . .

The Defendants, at the direction of their legal defense team, will have had to sit QUIETLY by while their reputations have been painted . . . . .

and the Prosecutor will have been re-elected for another term, having placated the local community as being tough on crime and not showing favortism to presumed well-off, privileged, white college boys.

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