"While the language of the e-mail is vile, the e-mail itself is perfectly consistent with the boys' unequivocal assertion that no sexual assault took place that evening," said attorney Robert Ekstrand. The e-mail "demonstrates that its writer is completely unaware that any act or event remotely similar to what has been alleged ever occurred."What Mr. Ekstrand did NOT go on to say was that the email itself is ALSO perfect consistent with an attitude of violent misogyny that either allowed -- or permitted non participants to be indifferent to -- the sexual assault that allegedly took place.
"ABRAMS: All right, Mr. Williams, you've made some comments about a 911 call that was presumably made an hour before this incident. This is the 911 call:posted by ericb at 7:58 PM on April 5, 2006
911 DISPATCHER: Durham 911. Where is your emergency?
CALLER: I don't know if this is an emergency, but I'm in Durham and I was driving down near Duke's campus and it's me and my black girlfriend and the guy, there's like a white guy by the Duke wall and he just hollered out (BEEP) to me and I'm just so angry. I saw them all come out like a big frat house and me and my black girlfriend are walking by and they called us (BEEP). I'm not going to press the issue I guess, but I live in a neighborhood where they wrote KKK on the side of a white station wagon and that's near right where I'm at. They didn't harm me in any way, but I just feel so completely offended.
ABRAMS: Mr. Williams, as you know, a neighbor had also claimed that he heard one of the young men in the house yelling at the women who were African American, thank your grandfather for my cotton shirt.
WILLIAMS: Well, I hadn't seen that. There's a lot of scuttlebut going around about this and about that. You listen to the tape and listen to the discrepancies in the tape, first I was driving by, then I was walking by, and if you go ahead to the second tape that gave the address.
There's no numbers on that particular house. So anyone looking at that house at night could not be able to identify numerically what number is on that house, unless they've been there. Is this a product of a setup? Those are things that we're going to be able to determine and ferret out in the shortcoming or in the shortcoming time that the investigators, private investigators are investigating this particular matter.
ABRAMS: So Mr. Williams, let me just understand what you're saying. You're saying that you think it's possible that the woman who made that 911 call made it an hour before the incident as part of a plan to later make accusations against these young men? So they get someone to call 911, say that there were racially charge statements made, then the women go into the house, they come out, they make the allegations. You're saying this may have all been part of a concerted plot?
WILLIAMS: Certainly seems kind of pat to me.
ABRAMS: What do you mean by that?
WILLIAMS: That it's all contrived.
Where is the young lady? Why hasn't the person who made that call come forward? I mean it's been in all of the news outlets, the news media has printed it. Why haven't they come forward to say yes, I made that 911 call that night. And why was a certain emphasis on me and my black friend. I mean people don't call and make phone calls like that. We're going to get to the bottom of what the motives are in this particular matter.
ABRAMS: So it sounds like you're saying you think it might have been one of the women involved here making the call?
WILLIAMS: Oh, OK. Now you're starting to see where I'm going."
"As the story unfolded, the student journalists at [North Carolina] Central [University] were learning a powerful lesson: that reality is textured. They knew rape was rape; their sympathies stayed with the accuser. But they were coming to see that things are rarely as simple as they first appear."posted by ericb at 9:28 PM on April 5, 2006
However, if you can't imagine a stripper doing such things then i'm not sure what planet you are from.... and if you can't imagine both happening ...
If you can't imagine drunk College men doing such things...
You go to an agency-where rule one is: ALWAYS GET THE FEE. Send whoever you have, whoever you can get, get a body to the door to get the cash. Sell them Marilyn Monroe, send them Marilyn Manson, just get the money."Do as little as possible for as much money as possible" : this is a point of pride among sex workers.
You gotta lie, cheat, steal, strongarm the guy, you don't walk out the door without the agencies money. Or you;re done. As for your money-that's on you...screw the guy, rob the guy, con the guy, beat the hell out of the guy. Whatever it takes.
You're not too keen on screwing strangers, seems like the best thing to do is to trick the guy into paying you for nothing, get him in the shower and steal his wallet and run, get him naked and have the goon outside beat the door in and run. Promise the world, get the guy to get himself off and be happy with it. First time it works, you decide it's the way to go-do as little as possible for as much money as possible.
Need justification for doing this to people? Well look at these guys, gotta pay some girl to come do them, what kind of lowlifes are these guys anyway? I don't care about these slugs. Disgusting losers, I hate these guys, but I need their money to survive....so if they get robbed or beat or scammed, they get what they deserve for being such pervs in the first place.
Raleigh lawyer Joe Cheshire, who represents one of the team captains, said the "inappropriate anger" displayed in the message supports the players' account. "These boys were frustrated because they ... thought these women had come and taken a bunch of money and started dancing and just decided to leave," Cheshire said.Yup, the ol' escort cash-and-dash routine.
According to The Chronicle, a Duke University student newspaper, McFadyen attended a "Take Back the Night" march against sexual violence and spoke to a reporter last week. "I completely support this event and this entire week," he told the newspaper. "It's just sad that the allegations we are accused of happened to fall when they did."Hmm, that took balls.
Stephens also unsealed his orders requiring all but one member of the team to submit to DNA testing. Those orders required the members to allow investigators to take a saliva swab and to photograph their faces and upper torsos.You can bet that anyone implicated by these DNA samples will challenge the constitutionality of the warrant as being too broad and inclusive.
The accuser had worked for an escort company for two months, doing one-on-one dates about three times a week.Also:
"It wasn't the greatest job," she said, her voice trailing off. But with two children, and a full class load at N.C. Central University, it paid well and fit her schedule.
This was the first time she had been hired to dance provocatively for a group, she said.
On Monday, March 13, 2006 about 11:00pm, the Duke University Lacrosse Team solicited a local escort service for entertainment. The victim was paid to dance at the residence located at 610 Buchanan. The Duke Lacrosse Team was hosting a party at the residence. The victim was sodomized, raped, assaulted and robbed. This horrific crime sent shock waves throughout our community.And:
Durham CrimeStoppers needs your assistance in solving this case. Although, we have received many calls expressing concerns and anger about this incident, we have not received any calls which will allow us to assist in resolving this case.
We are asking anyone who has any information which will allow the Durham Police Department to make an arrest in this case, please contact Durham CrimeStoppers at 683-1200.
WRAL learned Thursday that she works for Allure Escort ServiceApplemeat, read the first quote here. If Allure was her first job as a sex worker, she wasn't particularly green by March 13 but neither was she fully experienced. As for her personal history before Allure, nothing has been written; the closest is the St. Petersburg article.
According to a 2002 police report, the woman, currently a 27-year-old student at North Carolina Central University, gave a taxi driver a lap dance at a Durham strip club. Subsequently, according to the report, she stole the man's car and led deputies on a high-speed chase that ended in Wake County. Apparently, the deputy thought the chase was over when the woman turned down a dead-end road near Brier Creek, but instead she tried to run over him, according to the police report.She is not as inexperienced at the sex worker game as the first news article reported. So, delete that particular avenue of speculation.
"Time-stamped photographs will show an exotic dancer was already injured and 'very impaired' when she arrived at a party where she claims she was raped by members of Duke University’s men’s lacrosse team, an attorney for one of the players said Sunday.posted by ericb at 8:47 PM on April 9, 2006
Durham attorney Bill Thomas said some of the photographs, taken when she arrived at the house, indicate the woman was injured before getting to the party March 13. They show extensive bruises and scrapes on her legs, especially around the knees, he said....
Thomas said the photos contradict the alleged victim’s assertion she was scared, as they show her standing at the door of the off-campus house with 'a major grin on her face' as she tried to get back inside.
'People inside the house have stated she was banging on the door, attempting to regain entry,' Thomas said."
[The Associated Press | April 09, 2006]
"DNA testing failed to connect any members of the Duke University lacrosse team to the alleged rape of a stripper, attorneys for the athletes said Monday.posted by ericb at 4:39 PM on April 10, 2006
Citing DNA test results delivered by the state crime lab to police and prosecutors a few hours earlier, the attorneys said the test results prove their clients did not sexually assault and beat a stripper hired to perform at a March 13 team party.
[Associated Press | April 10,2006]
"A woman who claims she was raped by members of Duke University’s lacrosse team was described as 'just passed-out drunk' by one of the first police officers to see her, according to a recording of radio traffic obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.posted by ericb at 2:51 PM on April 13, 2006
The conversation between the officer and a police dispatcher took place about 1:30 a.m. March 14, about five minutes after a grocery store security guard called 911 to report a woman in the parking lot who would not get out of someone else’s car.
The officer gave the dispatcher the police code for an intoxicated person and said the woman was unconscious. When asked whether she needed medical help, the officer said: 'She’s breathing and appears to be fine. She’s not in distress. She’s just passed-out drunk.'"
"Lawyers for lacrosse players at Duke University swept up amid allegations of rape are citing a timeline of photographs that they claim proves the accuser actually was manicuring her nails at the only time the rape could have occurred.posted by ericb at 9:34 PM on April 16, 2006
ABC News viewed more than a dozen photos taken by a student at the house party where the assault is alleged to have occurred, many of which were blown up to identify details....
In the photos, ABC News could see three couches in a semi-circle with the dancers in the center. The scene looks like a typical college fraternity house — with a sign on a wall bearing the Duke insignia and saying, 'It's hard to beat a team that never gives up.'
Sources from the players' camp say the photos corroborate the players' version of events and their claims that no sexual assault took place. Students are shown drinking and horsing around, but do not reach out toward, or make contact with, the dancers during the four- to seven-minute performance captured in photos.
Some players are talking among themselves and not paying close to attention to the dancers, which sources say contradicts the accuser's claim that the boys were growing 'excited and aggressive.'
A shot of the accuser during her dance shows what appear to be bruised knees and lacerations. Sources among the students' legal team argue that she may have had some of the bruises she says are from a sexual assault before ever arriving at the house.
Some of the woman's fingers are missing nail extensions. Sources associated with the players' legal team link this to the hypothesis that she was fixing her nails in the bathroom and that is why broken nails were found there — not because she was clawing at her alleged attackers in self-defense.
ABC News was not shown any photos of the alleged victim time stamped between 12:03:57 and 12:30:12. That is the period during which both the players and the accuser say she was in the bathroom and the woman claims she was raped."
"Over the last few days, sources close to the defense have given ABC News an exclusive look at the evidence behind one player's alleged alibi — evidence that includes electronic records, photographs and witness statements....posted by ericb at 1:57 PM on April 19, 2006
[Reade] Seligmann's argument is simple: He is innocent and he has an alibi. He attended the party that night, but documents, photos and witness testimony show that he wasn't there long enough or at the right time to attack the alleged victim.
Around midnight the night of March 13, Seligmann was already at the party when two women hired from a local escort agency arrived to dance for the boys — $400 each for a two-hour performance. A series of time-stamped photographs viewed by ABC News show the girls dancing at midnight and at 12:02 a.m.
By 12:24 a.m., a receipt reviewed by ABC indicates that Seligmann's ATM card was used at a nearby Wachovia bank. In a written statement to the defense also reviewed by ABC, a cabdriver confirms picking up Seligmann and a friend a block and a half from the party, and driving them to the bank. By 12:25 a.m., he was making a phone call to a girlfriend out of state.
What did Seligmann do after leaving the bank? The taxi driver remembers taking him to a drive-thru fast-food restaurant and then dropping him off at his dorm. Duke University records show that Seligmann's card was used to gain entry at 12:46 a.m.
In addition to bolstering Seligmann's alibi, the taxi driver's written testimony provided a rare glimpse of color in an otherwise darkened night.
'I remember those two guys starting enjoying their food inside my car, but I'm glad I end up with a nice tip and fare $25,' the taxi driver said in his testimony.
ABC News traced the steps of Seligmann's story, timing how long it took to get from place to place. In repeated trials, the drive between the Wachovia branch and the corner where the cab picked him up took approximately five minutes. This suggests that Seligmann must have left the house by around 12:19 a.m.
So, Seligmann's alibi suggests, he and the alleged victim were in the house together for less than 20 minutes. According to defense sources, based on the alleged victim's affidavit, all of the following would have transpired within that time period: She and her dance partner performed for several minutes, left after feeling threatened by the boys' growing 'excited and aggressive,' returned after being persuaded by team members to dance some more, and then she was forced into a bathroom, beaten and raped.
Within those same minutes, phone bill records reviewed by ABC show that the defendant's cell phone made at least two outgoing calls.
Seligmann and his co-defendant were presumably among the players identified by the alleged victim last Thursday. According to defense attorneys, the prosecution said the woman picked out two of her alleged attackers with 100 percent certainty and one other attacker with 90 percent certainty while examining pictures. But did Seligmann have the time, much less the will, to commit a violent, sexual crime?"
[ABC News | April 19, 2006]
"RITA COSBY: The pictures of the two lacrosse players have now been all over the news. Now that they‘ve been charged. Is she sure that these two boys were involved in the alleged attack?Pretty sure?
ACCUSER‘S FATHER: According to what she told me, she‘s pretty sure, yes."
[MSNBC/Live & Direct | April 26, 2006]
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How dare you editorialize on a FPP!
I'm kidding of course. Thanks for bringing this up... seen it simmering here and there but it doesn't seem to be getting nearly the attention it deserves, especially considering the inane psuedo-spectacles that dominate a week's worth of news cycles.
posted by bukharin at 7:42 PM on April 5, 2006