For the second time this week I’m in Durham covering the Duke lacrosse rape allegations.
Today there’s a court hearing for Reade Seligmann. This will be his first court appearance since his indictment last month. What his attorneys are asking for is pretty much standard.
There’s been a lot of talk about what’s going on in this case. It’s a bare knuckle brawl between defense attorneys and prosecution.
Prosecutor Mike Nifong has been upset with the defense attorneys on how they’ve gone public to shoot holes in his case. The defense counters that ‘well you started that’ when Nifong opened his mouth a few days after all of the aggregations surfaced. Nifong said he can definitely see the case going to trial.
Nifong made it known that he believes the victim and thinks she’s telling the truth.
That’s pretty unusual.
It’s pretty unusual for a prosecutor to get on a soapbox about a case, especially when the investigation is still going on. Most prosecutors get on their soapbox during trial.
I know of some friends of his who are attorneys who basically thought he was out of his mind for doing it that way. Of course, he was in the middle of an election and his strategy, if this was apart of it and I don’t know if it was or wasn’t, seems to have worked.
Nifong won the election and of course the defense attorneys have played politics with that. They basically said that the whole prosecution was motivated by one man trying to win the district attorneys office.
That’s without getting into the racial and community components of this trial. That’s part of what makes this a dicey mix. It’s not your average little court case.
Today’s hearing
Reade’s defense attorney asked for discovery. He wants to know what evidence they have against his client. Legally the prosecution has to turn that over.
Reade’s attorneys want to get his bond reduced. They want the police to preserve any notes and tapes that they have taken. I think what they would be looking for in getting those notes is maybe some of the investigators have expressed doubts about the victim, doubts about her story. If they can get that documentation, that would be very valuable in cross examination.
All of those motions are standard. Will the defense attorneys have anything to say at the conclusion of this hearing? Will we hear from our second lacrosse player today?
I think we can argue that David Evans’ little pep talk was very effective and very, very unusual. Most attorneys don’t allow their client to do something like that. You never see that.
So as effective as that was, and if these guys truly didn’t do anything, maybe we’ll see that again today.
Media circus
It’s a media zoo here. All the network players are here with at least two crews. ESPN reporters are here. Ron Motts from NBC is here, Rita Cosby has been here. CNN and Fox are here. Everybody who is anybody here.
The A team isn’t here today. Dan Abrams, Rita Cosby…they’ve been here, but they’re not here today.
It is a media zoo. I would compare it to the Susan Smith trial. I believe there were more media at the Susan Smith trial though because you had so many local TV stations.
We are the only station from Charlotte here and I haven’t seen any Greensboro stations, but all of the Raleigh stations have two crews there.
I am allowed in the courtroom this afternoon. Unlike the Mecklenburg County courthouse, it is much more relaxed here. We have a lot more freedom of movement.
When they first indicted the two students, we actually taped Mike Nifong going in and out of the bathroom. It was a zoo of people up on the sixth floor where his office is.
It was actually kind of funny. I can understand why he might get a little frustrated and call the attention shameful. I mean we’re taping a guy going in and out of the bathroom. That’s how whacky it was.
Tension in Durham
There is some degree of racial tension here and you could sense it by going onto the Duke campus and Central’s campus.
I don’t think it’s as great as it was because the DA has taken action. Clearly on the Duke campus they believe the kids are falsely accused.
I never got the sense that anything violent was going to come of it. Going to Central, they have intelligent arguments on why they support the dancer and you get the same at Duke.
The only confrontation I suspected would happen was verbal and there’s nothing like a spiritual debate.
Glenn Counts is a crime reporter who has been covering court cases in the Charlotte area since 1998.
How can so many different young men have the same story and keep it straight all this time? If they were lying, there would have been a few little variations in the least.
Funny, too, the "victim" didn't point a finger at the black player on the team. Also funny, none of the dna of the players matched anything found on her.
Funny, too, how the DA is desparately trying to squash any old "sins" of the "victim."
And, there are plenty, if the reporters would just do a little digging and not only in Chapel Hill.
And what happened to old Rev. Jackson, is he on vacation, spring break? Not a word lately from his mouth, guess he may be playing daddy to his little slip up awhile ago.
Any way this turns out it is just sad for all parties touched by the incident. Duke students should have more dignity and respect for life than to hire strippers to degrade for amusement to begin with. It would seem like people with the kind of IQ required to attend such a university would have a better regard for life rather than just base, animal, disgusting behavior. That would be my opinion even before contemplating the possibility of those overly privilged snots committing rape. PATHETIC to be given so much of a gift by God and squandered. Why don't they use their IQ's to make a better world? Guilty or not - they are crud balls and brought it on themselves. I hope they are truly not guilty of this horrible crime and if found not guilty by our legal system - use this experience to turn their lives around for a better higher purpose,
Let's start by saying, I am a well-educated female who would support this girl 100% IF her story made sense. Her report gave me a funny feeling from the beginning. Who cares that they hired a stripper? They are college boys - kind of goes along with what most college boys do. I agree with the above post, if they raped her, they sure have all of their stories straight. Another interesting thing not mentioned above, is that the "victim" accused 3 men of doing the same thing approximately ten years ago. Interesting? Sound familiar? I think she is obviously lying. If they raped her & she fought back like she said, there would most certainly be some sort of dna in/on her & those boys would have some marks on them. Let me propose a possible scenario...do you think that maybe they were disappointed with the strippers that showed up & voiced that disappointment? Strippers got offended & then a war of words ensued -- ending up offending the strippers? Lest we forget the 2nd stripper has already contacted a PR firm in NY wondering how to spin this in a positive direction for herself.
You have to start at home teaching your children. Parents have to be a role model to their children.You can't send them off to college and keep your fingers crossed that they'll behave like adults are supposed to. Fathers need to teach respect for women...2redneck billy...The victim didn't need to point a finger at the black player because he didn't rape her...End of story.
Wouldn't it be more impressive if the DA had followed NORMAL procedures for an impartial lineup? Why were there only Duke players in the lineup? If it is shown that there is no reasonable evidence, I would hope that the DA can be removed from office and the dancer prosecuted!
It is hard to beleive the chatter of DNA being not present yet some want to convict anyway.How many have been cleared by DNA and now some want to throw it out the window because Black and White relations are not as they should be in the USA. If we can clear some with DNA we can clear others before the trial with DNA. Come on America, get real.
Just when you think this case couldn't get any weaker, more information comes to light showing the complete incompetence of district attorney Mike Nifong.
The only thing left to make this case even weaker would be the accuser herself finally coming forward to admit that she lied about the whole thing, which would make it even harder for district attorney to win the case, but Mike Nifong would probably ignore that piece of evidence as well in his quest to maliciously prosecute these young men.
1. The stripper acknowledged drinking before going to the party.
2. The stripper told police that she used a vibrating sex toy during a dance in a hotel room for a male and female, but prior she told police that she had not had sex in the week before the party.
3. The Stripper had sex with her boyfriend and the two men that drives her to these parties, and this was the third party she did that night.
4. Another male friend of the accuser said that he had sex with the stripper that week and that he drove her to three other sexual encounters, according to the friend's statement.
5. Osborn also claims in the court documents that the nurse who examined the alleged victim was in training and not yet certified.
6. The “rape kit report” stated that their was some swelling – which is pretty god for someone who had that much sex that night and the days before.
7. The DA Mike Nifong lied when he stated he was waiting for a toxicity test to prove a rape date drug was used. No toxicity test was done.
So far the absolute void of DNA has proven that no rape has occurred. The 2nd stripper first statement stated that the drunk stripper was alone for only five minutes at the house.