Newsweek on Duke Rape Case: Open Thread
Here's an open thread dedicated to the Duke Lacrosse case.
Newsweek has a very detailed 8 page recap of events in the Duke Lacrosse players alleged rape case. If you don't have time to read the whole thing, here are the highlights I found significant. First, the article puts Reade Seligman's alibi defense in a clear and concise nutshell.
Photos taken by a partygoer and viewed by NEWSWEEK show the alleged victim, an exotic dancer, ending a brief performance for the team at 12:03 a.m. Between 12:05 and 12:24 a.m., Seligmann dialed at least eight separate calls on his cell phone. A taxi driver said that he had picked up Seligmann and another friend, who were laughing and joking, at about 12:19, and took them to an ATM (where Seligmann swiped his card), to a fast-food restaurant and then to his dorm, where Seligmann swiped in at 12:46 a.m. In other words, it would seem Seligmann must have committed a sex crime in less than two minutes or while he was on the phone.
As to Finnerty:
Defense lawyers were broadly hinting that the second defendant, Collin Finnerty, had left the party before the dance even began. Both men's lawyers maintain their clients are innocent.
Also an interesting note about Finnerty's prior arrest for assault -- he was neither charged nor convicted of any crime:
Finnerty agreed to perform community service to avoid being formally charged.
There's a bit of a different version of the first round of DNA tests:
Defense lawyer Bill Thomas told NEWSWEEK that in the first round some DNA showed up under the woman's fingernails, though tests were inconclusive about identity.
Clearing up some timeline details:
According to a timeline put out by defense lawyers, one exotic dancer, Kim Roberts, 31, appeared on time, but another dancer, who was dropped off by a car, arrived a half hour late.
On the drinks provided:
According to Roberts, who was interviewed last week by NEWSWEEK, the boys gave each of them mixed drinks. Roberts says she did not drink hers, but the other dancer did, knocking her cup over after finishing half her drink, then imbibing Roberts's.
On the broom:
All sides agree that one of the partygoers called out to the women asking if they had brought any sex toys. According to defense lawyers, there was some anatomically crude banter between one of the women and the audience, but then one of the boys, holding a broom handle, yelled out, "Use this!" That was enough for Roberts; she and the other woman ended the show. A photo taken at 12:03 shows the dancers turning away; the boys no longer look happy.
There's a lot on the politics of the case, particularly involving Kim Roberts' lawyer, Mark Simeon and the DA. They used to be adversaries, not any more. Simeon is now supporting Nifong in the May 2 election.
Nifong was the protégé of Simeon's rival in the 2002 race for D.A. Simeon and Nifong did not get along, according to Simeon....On March 28--the day after Nifong first spoke out in the Duke case, publicly chastising the players for not coming forward to volunteer information about the alleged rape--Simeon told Nifong he would support him. He invited Nifong to speak at his church...
....That was on April 9. A week later Simeon asked Nifong to go to court to relieve Kim of the obligation of paying the bail-bond fees, arguing that she was no longer a "flight risk." Nifong agreed, as did the judge. Simeon told NEWSWEEK he went before the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, a very influential group, and urged them to vote for Nifong. Simeon says he has also been giving Nifong fashion advice, telling him to lose the plaid shirts and to start wearing black suits, light shirts and power ties. Women like power, Simeon says he told Nifong.
On Nifong's refusal to consider exculpatory information provided by the defense:
On April 13, Nifong met with three defense lawyers, Bill Thomas, Butch Williams and Wade Smith. According to Williams, when the lawyers got into exculpatory evidence, like the photos, Nifong essentially cut them off, saying that he knew much more about the case than they would ever know, and that he intended to indict two players.
Dumbest media comment by anyone uninvolved in the case so far: A college student at Central, the college attended by the accuser, told Newsweek:
Chan Hall, 22, said, "It's the same old story. Duke up, Central down." Hall said he wanted to see the Duke students prosecuted "whether it happened or not. It would be justice for things that happened in the past."
I sure hope that kid doesn't get a job in the criminal justice system after graduation.
This is an open thread on all aspects of the case.
Late night updates: There are some very interesting comments on the case at the Dell Gines blog, which is written by an African American male.
cop arrives and sees drunk woman passed out, drunk woman is taken to a "substance abuse" center, realizes she may be in big trouble because of her past drunken criminal behavior (leading police on a car chase and trying to run down an officer), claims rape, is sent to hospital where exam reveals injuries "consistent" with rape, points the finger at three men at the party, media and black "leaders" go crazy and play up race angle, DA - in a fight for political survival - takes the race bait and vilifies 46 men, some of whom weren't at the party, tests all but the black player, and despite no evidence charges two men with rape.
That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
Thread now closed and continued here.
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