Posted on 04/11/2006 9:01:01 AM PDT by Arec Barrwin
Apr 11, 11:38 AM EDT
D.A. Says Duke Lacrosse Probe to Continue
By TIM WHITMIRE Associated Press Writer
Duke Prosecutor: 'This Case is Not Over'
DURHAM, N.C. (AP) -- Durham County's chief prosecutor said Tuesday he will not abandon his investigation of allegations that an exotic dancer was raped and beaten at a party thrown by members of Duke University's lacrosse team.
"A lot has been said in the press, particularly by some attorneys yesterday, that this case should go away," District Attorney Mike Nifong said at a community forum. "My presence here means that this case is not going away."
On Monday, attorneys representing members of the lacrosse team said DNA from the 46 players tested did not match evidence collected from the woman who says she was raped.
"No DNA from any young man tested was found anywhere on or about this woman," defense attorney Wade Smith said Monday.
He said he hoped Nifong would drop the investigation.
No charges have been filed in the case, but Nifong has said he believes a crime occurred at the March 13 party, which according to court records was attended only by lacrosse players. The woman said her attackers were white, so DNA testing was done on every white member of the team.
Nifong, who has said he doesn't necessarily need DNA evidence to prosecute, was calmly defiant at Tuesday's forum, attended by about 700 people on the campus of North Carolina Central University, the historically black university a few miles from Duke where the alleged victim is a student.
"The fact is that this case is proceeding the way a case should proceed," Nifong said to applause from the crowd.
Butch Williams, attorney for accused Duke University Lacrosse players, says the evidence is on his side. Buy AP Photo Reprints
The 27-year-old woman told police she and another woman were hired to dance at the party and that three men there dragged her into a bathroom, choked her, raped her and sodomized her. The allegations led to days of protests on and off the Duke campus.
Robert Archer, whose son Breck is a junior on the lacrosse team, said that while it is Nifong's prerogative to pursue the case if he so chooses, it would be a waste of time.
"I know the kids on the team, and I know they're innocent. We knew it from the start," Archer said by phone from his home in East Quogue, N.Y.
Court experts not connected with the Duke case cautioned that the DNA results could make prosecution difficult, but not impossible.
"There's an old saying that the absence of evidence is not necessarily evidence of absence," said Peter Neufeld, co-founder and co-director of the Innocence Project, a nonprofit legal clinic.
A doctor and forensic sexual assault nurse examined the woman and found evidence consistent with a rape having occurred, police documents show.
Nifong said Tuesday that in 75 to 80 percent of all sexual assault cases, there is no DNA evidence.
"DNA results can often be helpful, but you know, I've been doing this a long time, and for most of the years I've been doing this we didn't have DNA," he said. "We had to deal with sexual assault cases the good old fashioned way. Witnesses got on the stand and told what happened to them."
Loyola Law School professor Stan Goldman agreed that DNA evidence is not necessary to win a conviction but said Nifong would have a lot to overcome without it.
"In this day and age, it's the 'CSI' effect," he said, referring to the popular "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" series on TV. "If you don't find the evidence, then maybe it's not the guy. In 'CSI,' they always find the evidence."
Defense attorney Bill Thomas said authorities found none of the alleged victim's DNA in the bathroom where she told police she was attacked.
"Our experts tell us that being gang-raped by three men would leave DNA material to be examined," Thomas said.
Goldman said the failure to find any matching DNA evidence, is "not the end of the case, but it's kind of damning to the prosecution case."
"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?" Goldman asked. "That's all the defense has to do."
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AP National Writer Allen G. Breed contributed to this report.
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"The cross-town Durham school to which she purportedly goes is North Carolina Central University (NCCU). Since we've had the discussion about the "culture of rape" at Duke, can we now have the discussion about the "culture of single-mother fatherless-children sex-worker false-acuser substance-abuser felons" at NCCU?"
That is a GREAT post and effectively highlights the hypocrisy of the coverage. Well done!!! I am in awe...
That was probably in the days before dna evidence.
If he's talking about nowadays--he probably just made it up. 75-80%--Call me skeptical.
Nifong is a DEMOCRAT who needs African American voters to survive in Durham. Duke is known as a Right Wing school with many prominent GOP alumni. If Nifong presses charges he will destroy his political career and be a White Al Sharpton.
About half the rape cases are are not reported contemporaneously AND SO THERE IS NO dna TESTING. How many cases are there where the victim is DNA tested at teh time of teh rape and then there is no DNA match?
That's the real question.
Nifong said Tuesday that in 75 to 80 percent of all sexual assault cases, there is no DNA evidence.
I'd like to know where he got that number.
If you grabbed your babysitters butt, you'd be guilty of sexual assault. How much DNA do you think you'd leave behind?
Another idiot woman on Nancy Grace tried to make the same point last night. She almost hyperventilated screaming "what are the odds that the semen from two males that she identified would be on a towel in the same room the poor victim was trapped in".
I'm surprised Nifong didn't hand out pom-poms and noisemakers prior to this forum pep rally.
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Nifong, who has said he doesn't necessarily need DNA evidence to prosecute, was calmly defiant at Tuesday's forum, attended by about 700 people on the campus of North Carolina Central University, the historically black university a few miles from Duke where the alleged victim is a student.
Looks like you are on to something. The man is willing to smear innocent white students in order to get in good with the black vote. He is doing open forums on the 'victim's' campus. I'm surprised Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton weren't standing next to him.
If the softball team had hired the same stripper we would not heard a peep.
really. not allowed a grab. shucks!! might have to turn myself in. oh no DNA. Shweee
Figures often beguile me, particularly when I have the arranging of them myself;
in which case the remark attributed to Disraeli would often apply with justice and force:
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."
- - From the Autobiography of Mark Twain
"There's an old saying that the absence of evidence is not necessarily evidence of absence," said Peter Neufeld, co-founder and co-director of the Innocence Project, a nonprofit legal clinic.
Talk about irony! Someone from the "Innocence Project" advocating for the continued prosecution of defendants without any evidence of a crime.
Yep, they shown their true colors.
Nifong said Tuesday that in 75 to 80 percent of all sexual assault cases, there is no DNA evidence.
Not all sexual assaults are rapes, and not all rapes are violent gang rapes. Nifong is lumping this in with groping offenses, etc. and being intentionally deceptive.
WHERE'S KIM?
-----Nifong said Tuesday that in 75 to 80 percent of all sexual assault cases, there is no DNA evidence.-----
Squeezing buttocks without permission is considered SEXUAL ASSAULT. "Accidentally" touching breasts without permission is also SEXUAL ASSAULT. DA Nifong is being egregiously disingenuous.
In sexual assault cases involving penis-vagina penetration, DNA is virtually ALWAYS present.
In spite of those who WANT a rape here...it is becoming increasingly obvious that no sex took place.
No, the coach resigned because it became clear that he did not have the appropriate adult control over his rowdy underage players, and the player was suspended because of the email where he appeared to want to skin the stripper and get off to it.
They have handled it poorly, but I don't know how this thing could have played out any differently given all of the circumstances.
Randy college students, gross emails, oh my. Were these student-atheletes in a revenue producing sport, or members of Dem constituency (homosexual, women, minorities), then nary a peep would have been heard of all this. What business does Duke have peering into a student's private correspondence? Does the faculty get its emails scoured publicly?
No such thing. If you send email using a private company's system (like the duke.edu email accounts) then the owner of the servers have every right to see what you are doing with the email account they provided you.
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