Posted on 04/16/2006 9:05:32 PM PDT by Michael2001
With a grand jury now expected to convene Monday to weigh indictments of two or three of the Duke lacrosse players tied to allegations of raping an exotic dancer, defense lawyers say they fear their clients are being targeted in a setup or sting operation possibly perpetrated by law enforcement. The lawyers have advised the players not to trust or respond to any e-mails sent to each other, one attorney tells Time.
The explosive allegations stem from an e-mail message sent in the last few days to several players from the e-mail address of another player, stating he was going to tell the police a crime occurred and implicate key players. The player denies he sent it. This comes after the recent revelations of the now infamous email sent by a Duke player hours after the alleged crime, in which he joked he was going to have more strippers over and "kill the bitches'; defense lawyers do not dispute that message's authenticity, though they insist it has no bearing on their clients' culpability. "The police said (the new e-mail) came from a confidential informant, but we have reason to believe it came from the police, hoping it would make all the players nervous," says one defense lawyer. "That didn't work." A spokesperson at the Durham Police Department would not comment on the allegations of a set-up, and said she would not forward Time's inquiries to any of her superiors over the holiday weekend. No one at the Durham County District Attorney's Office could be reached for comment Friday.
The lawyers' unsubstantiated accusations came on a busy Good Friday in Durham, when it became known that Durham police investigators had attempted the night before to interview some players on campus about the case. Meanwhile, defense lawyers tell Time they spent part of Friday trying unsuccessfully to talk the Durham County district attorney Michael Nifong out of taking the rape case before a grand jury after the Easter weekend. "What I wished and hoped he would do is conclude there is not enough evidence to proceed," says one defense attorney.
Despite the highly publicized lack of initial DNA evidence linking any player to a crime, grand jurors will be presented with the accuser's statement, her visual identification of the players from photos and a police report from a hospital examination stating "injuries consistent with being sexually assaulted vaginally and anally." Nifong is also still awaiting results of DNA analysis from a private lab in North Carolina to compare with those already received from the state's own crime lab. Blood was taken from the three captains of the team. Saliva cheek swabs were used to gather DNA from 43 players; the lone black player on the team was not tested, as the African-American accuser has said her attackers were white. So far none of the Duke players have been subpoened to appear before the grand jury as witnesses, nor has a second woman also hired as an exotic dancer at the team's Spring Break party at an off-campus house on the night of March 13.
On Thursday, Durham police released the audio tape of a dispatch call made by a responding officer from a Kroger parking lot about four miles from the house where the team party took place. The officer, responding to a 911 call, noted that the accuser was in a drunken state. "She's just passed out drunk," the officer says. D efense lawyers also point to the officer's statement that he has a "24- hour hold" situation — meaning possibly a night in jail on a drunk and disorderly charge. Defense lawyers tell Time they will argue that it was expressly to avoid that possibility that the accuser fabricated the rape charge. "I know which I'd choose," says one defense attorney.
Harder to explain away is the hospital examination report. Defense lawyers will try to poke holes at it by searching for a lag time between the 911 call and the accuser's arrival at the hospital. The district attorney's office has not made public the police report stating time of arrival, and neither has the hospital.
Lawyers say a photo taken of the accuser at 12:40 a.m. shows her being helped into the car by some of the Duke players. The 911 call was made at 1:30 a.m., and she reportedly left the hospital at approximately 11 a.m. later that morning after spending five or six hours there.
Defense lawyers tell Time they also have pictures, not yet turned over to the DA's office, of the main room at the party showing the players sitting in a semi-circle "watching the show." "They are bored, they're practically yawning. This is not a group of rowdy, dangerous people," says one of the attorneys.
No one should be surprised that District Attorney Nifong is proceeding with the case despite the lack of initial DNA evidence. Nifong made his intentions clear on April 11, the day after the initial DNA results went public, at a forum at North Carolina Central University, where the accuser is a student. "Anytime you have a victim who can identify her assailant, then what you have is a case a judge must let go to the jury," he said.
ping
anyone find it interesting that District Attorney Nifong is up for re-election this year.
Ping
I think the DA needs to arrest the entire lacrosse team and physically abuse each one until they all confess. (sarcasm)
Personally, I think it's an absolutely critical part of the story. The election he's concerned with -- the Democrat primary -- is in two weeks.
I wonder if the case (or any charges) will survive long beyond the first Tuesday in May.
It's extremely easy to fake the FROM in an email. It could be someone other than law enforcement faking them.
Is that why they kept trying to get into the players' dorm rooms? Onw cop pretends to sniff around while the other boots up a computer and sends "phishing" email to everybody on the team?
"This Year"?
The Dem primary is in the first week of May, and the GOP as of yet has no challenger for the November general election.
One would think the MSM would at least investigate this angle?
I agree
With all the people sitting in front of the players homes shouting "Time to Confess - Time to Confess" Just sickening
I am still pissed off that they cancelled the entire season because of this lying stripper...oh, I'm sorry..."exotic dancer".
He's up for election; he was appointed by our idiot governor Mike Easley.
I wonder why they even hired some exotic dancer???????? Sounds like a Tawana Brawley case.
According to NBC17 tonight, the police officer took her to a PSYCH WARD (I do not know where) at 1:49 a.m. and from there she was transferred to Duke Medical Center at 2:39 a.m., whereupon a rape was reported at 2:50 a.m.
And printing up huge posters with every single one of their pictures on it and hanging them on every car, tree, and pole in Durham and Raleigh; not to be outdone, the News & Observer posted them, too.
And people were surprised when she "ID's" one of them LAST WEEK?
The released 911 tapes and/or the security guards statements say nothing about her being transfered to a psych ward....wonder where this came from
More and more I'm beginning to suspect this "dancer" got raped by some john (or some fella she KNEW) that she met for a "date" AFTER the party. Now she is trying to put the blame on the privileged white boys from Duke.
Nothing like trying to shame an institution!!
I wonder what the fallout will be if it plays fully out and she ultimately confesses or the john steps up and acknowledges this "dancer" takes money for rough sex? Hey, this becomes the new and improved 21st century edition of the Tawana Brawley travesty. Shakedown Jesse will have to postpone his trip to the Tarheel state.
Now, if it goes to trial and the Duke kids are 100% exonerated, then that of course will be spun as racism. Shakedown, Al, Calypso Louie - the whole gang - will lead marches right past Cameron Indoor Stadium in protest!
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