NC - Two Duke Lacrosse Players Indicted

[Sherlockmom]

>In my heart I believe the only way racism will ever die is if "we" the people living now quit bringing it up every time there is something like this.This should be looked at as a girl accusing three guys.Nothing more,nothing less.<<


Well actually it wasn't "we" the people that brought it up. It was the stripper and her friend. Remember it was only the alleged 911 call and the claims by her friend that they were being called racial slurs that made this about race. I think because it seems more and more likely that it certainly wasn't about rape. It was about something else that has nothing to do with "we" the people. I think we should keep the blame where it belongs. Either with the alleged victim and her friend if they aren't telling the truth or the men who raped her if that is what happened. I don't think I'm to blame. I had nothing to do with it. The people never played the race card. The victim and her friend did.

Sherlockmom

 

[GonzoReiter]

This is the funniest post I have ever read here.

I did a double take on that one as well...'til I realized the poster was surely just having us on, Nova.


btw, the admonishment about the racial issue was well advised. I'll wager most members of WS would hope everyone takes heed and would refrain from prejudicial generalizations for all races, creeds, colours, religions, etc...

 

[Wudge]

>The day after the March 13 team party where a 27-year-old black woman claimed she was raped, Durham police told campus officers that "this will blow over," the report said. It said that the woman initially told police she was raped by 20 white men, then said she was attacked by three.<


Oh for pity's sake ( This DA should be run out of town on a rail

Sherlockmom

The majority of prosecutors in NC are stone dumb. Hence, they have to be corrupt to survive or win cases. So, corruption, malacious prosecution and wrongful convictions are the way of life there. To Nifong, this is sport.

 

[BillyGoatGruff]

This is the funniest post I have ever read here.

Obviously, Billy is writing satirically. He knows quite well the "founding fathers" did little to nothing to solve that little "ethnic problem" called human slavery.

Now I'll shut up on racial history, per Jeana's request.

Yeah, as we all knowm slavery as an institution is alive and well and still being practiced throughout the USA. :doh:

See--I thought I'd make a last snide comment/attack and then pretend to obey the moderator as well.

 

[Jeana (DP)]

Hope ya'll are done now.

 

[concernedperson]

It looks like new DNA evidence has been identified.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,195078,00.html

 

[Paladin]

It looks like new DNA evidence has been identified.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,195078,00.html

Okay, but how are prosecutor's going to link skin tissue DNA from a lacrosse player to rape? It's inconclusive. There could have been many reasons why it was there.

 

[Jeana (DP)]

It looks like new DNA evidence has been identified.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,195078,00.html

Thanks for the link.

 

[Sherlockmom]

>The paper reported that sources told it that scientists said the evidence came "from the same genetic pool and was 'consistent' with the bodily makeup of one of 46 lacrosse players" who were tested in the case. Scientists were able to rule out the other 45 players who were tested, the paper reported.But the sources added that because a complete DNA pattern was not obtained from the tissue itself, it was not possible to match it with the usual near-100 percent certainty.<

Doesn't sound to me like really strong DNA evidence. Coming from the same gene pool? That can be a pretty big pool!! Yes, the DNA under the nails could have happened during a scuffle. Perhaps trying to get her out of the house? Who knows?

Even more interesting from the same article:

>The News Observer reported that taxi driver Moezeldin Elmostafa, who had told police he was driving defendant Reade Seligmann during the time of the alleged rape, was arrested Wednesday on a 2 1/2-year-old misdemeanor warrant for shoplifting.<

How much do you want to bet that Mr. Elmostafa will change his story now?

Sherlockmom

 

[CordovaMom]

I have a question -- sorry if it's too graphic...The alleged victim identified Seligman as the young man that allegedly forced her to perform oral sex on him -- wouldn't there be some dna evidence in her mouth?

 

[Jeana (DP)]

I have a question -- sorry if it's too graphic...The alleged victim identified Seligman as the young man that allegedly forced her to perform oral sex on him -- wouldn't there be some dna evidence in her mouth?

If he ejaculated in her mouth, I guess there is always the possibility that there "could" be DNA around her mouth. I'm not sure if it would "stay" inside her mouth though. If you know what I mean.

 

[Sherlockmom]

Not satisfied with the State's investigative bureau's DNA results Nifong hired a PRIVATE lab to do this DNA testing.


"A DNA expert said Wednesday that one way a DNA report sometimes says DNA is "consistent" with a particular person is when there's a partial DNA profile of fewer than all 13 genetic markers commonly used in testing kits.


In that case, the number of markers available determines the reliability of the match, said Theodore D. Kessis, owner of Applied DNA Resources in Columbus, Ohio.

"It really depends then upon how partial is that profile," he said in a telephone interview. "A lot of people are of the opinion, including myself, that if it's supposed to test for 13, it should get 13, and something less than 13 is starting to hinge on the reliability of the result. "When you get down into the two or three partial match, you get numbers that might be 1 in 6, it might be 1 in 10, so what happens then is the question of what's the probative value of the report. ... People play the lottery on worse odds."

http://www.heraldsun.com/durham/4-733481.html

Also I thought I remembered reading somewhere that it was reported that the AV was doing her nails in the bathroom. While some painted nails were found in the trashcan (from which the DNA was extracted) there were also at least one unpainted nail found on the floor. Perhaps indicating that she was indeed doing her nails in the bathroom? How convenient that some were left in the trashcan. I wonder what else was found in that trashcan. I've only had tips put on my nails once but I remembered that some came off by themselves rather easily while I was opening a car door or a soda can and others left needed a soaking for awhile in a chemical. If these weren't professionally applied they may come off very easily.

Sherlockmom

 

[Wudge]

It looks like new DNA evidence has been identified.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,195078,00.html

The NCBI ran the first set of DNA tests. The results were exonerating.

The D.A. has a private lab running another set of tests. Those results are not due back until Monday. Hence, this "new news" represents rank speculation and nothing else.

 

[Sherlockmom]

Interesting developments:


"Taxi driver Moezeldin Elmostafa said Investigator R.D. Clayton and another officer asked whether he had anything new to tell them about the rape case before driving him to the Durham County jail. He said no and was held for five hours, until a friend posted his bail on a shoplifting charge."

and:

"Conner said it was highly unusual for police to arrest someone for a misdemeanor more than two years after the crime. He contrasted the treatment of the taxi driver with that of Kim Roberts, the other dancer at the party. Conner said Roberts initially told police no rape occurred at the party but changed her story after she was arrested on a probation violation. District Attorney Mike Nifong later reduced Roberts' bail."

Read entire article including circumstances of the charges against the taxi driver here:

http://www.newsobserver.com/122/story/438305.html

Sherlockmom

 

[Sherlockmom]

Second dancer speaks again:


Excerpt:

>After two unsatisfying years, she got pregnant, married and dropped out. The marriage quickly fell apart.


Roberts took a job as a payroll specialist at Qualex, a photo-processing company. There, she embezzled $25,000.

Roberts said she doesn't know why she did it. Her job paid well and she wasn't under financial stress, nor was she using drugs, drinking or gambling.

"Maybe it was a thrill of having a secret," she said. "That's a little bit of the thrill of being a dancer as well."

She turned to waitressing, a job that doesn't require criminal background checks. She picked up a probation violation by not paying any restitution, missing appointments with her probation officer and visiting her father in California without permission. Roberts said she began working for an escort service in the fall.<

READ MORE:

http://www.newsobserver.com/122/story/438314.html

Sherlockmom

 

[Wudge]

Interesting developments:


"Taxi driver Moezeldin Elmostafa said Investigator R.D. Clayton and another officer asked whether he had anything new to tell them about the rape case before driving him to the Durham County jail. He said no and was held for five hours, until a friend posted his bail on a shoplifting charge."

and:

"Conner said it was highly unusual for police to arrest someone for a misdemeanor more than two years after the crime. He contrasted the treatment of the taxi driver with that of Kim Roberts, the other dancer at the party. Conner said Roberts initially told police no rape occurred at the party but changed her story after she was arrested on a probation violation. District Attorney Mike Nifong later reduced Roberts' bail."

Read entire article including circumstances of the charges against the taxi driver here:

http://www.newsobserver.com/122/story/438305.html

Sherlockmom

Witness coercion by the prosecutor, typical.

Here's a free lesson: Smart people never trust anyone in LE or the D.A.s office, never.

 

[Sherlockmom]

>According to defense attorneys, police found four stick-on acrylic fingernails in a trashcan at 610 Buchanan Street, the house where the party took place. The tissue connected to the possible DNA match was found under one of those fingernails.



But defense attorneys said the third player accused lived at the house and it is no surprise that trace amounts of his DNA could be found inside his own trashcan. They also said they don't believe the type of fingernails that were found -- the kind that are applied with an adhesive strip -- actually ripped off during an attack. They don't believe the fingernails were ever applied and they say they have pictures to prove it.



NBC-17 has seen a picture of the dancer's hand at the house when she performed her dance routine. It appears that long, fake fingernails were on some of her fingers in that photo, but not all of them.

Other photos show what defense lawyers believe is red fingernail polish on the walls of the house and on the railing outside the house. They believe the accuser was painting and applying her nails while at the party.<

http://www.nbc17.com/news/9203288/detail.html

I believe that these were the fingernails that were retrieved days later from the trash can and they were those press-on type of nails with the adhesive strips.

Sherlockmom

 

[Jeana (DP)]

Duke Accuser In Prior Rape Claim
Ten years ago, woman told N.C. cops of assault by three men
APRIL 28--A decade before accusing three Duke University lacrosse players of rape, a North Carolina woman claimed to have been sexually assaulted by a trio of men when she was a teenager. In 1996, the woman, now 27, told police that three attackers had assaulted her several years earlier, when she was 14. The woman's first rape claim was recorded in August 1996 by police in Creedmoor, N.C., though none of the men she identified as her assailants were ever charged. A copy of the Creedmoor Police Department report can be found below (the names of the accuser and her purported attackers have been redacted by cops). The woman told police that she was raped and beaten "for a continual time" in a house in Creedmor, which is about 15 miles outside Durham, where the Duke attack allegedly occurred. The latter assault came after the accuser, an exotic dancer who attends North Carolina Central University, stripped at a March off-campus party attended by most of Duke's lacrosse team. Two players, Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty, have been indicted for rape and investigators are seeking to identify a third alleged attacker. (2 pages)


The police report can be read at:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0428061duke1.html

 

[MSM]

CNN opinion piece about the case:

http://writ.news.findlaw.com/commentary/20060428_spilbor.html

 

[LaMer]

Breaking News

New DNA Results Don't Link Duke Players to Rape Accuser, Lawyer Says

May 12, 2006 — A lawyer for one of the players on the Duke University lacrosse team said the results of the second round of DNA testing in the investigation of rape allegations showed "no conclusive match" with any player on the team.

"Categorically, this report shows no conclusive match between any genetic material taken on or from the false accuser and any genetic material of any Duke lacrosse player," said Joe Chesire, an attorney for one of the team members not accused in the case, at a news conference hours after the results of the new testing were released.


District Attorney Mike Nifong turned over the results late Friday afternoon, and attorneys for all the players on the team were notified that they could pick them up at the Durham County Courthouse around 5 p.m.

~more at link~


http://abcnews.go.com/US/LegalCenter/story?id=1955746&page=1