Indictments, Arrests In Duke Lacrosse Case

Two players have been arrested in the Duke lacrosse case.  From the NY Times:

Two Duke University men's lacrosse players were arrested today and charged with rape and kidnapping in a case involving a woman who has accused three team members of attacking her at a party last month.

Sgt. Andre Mims of the Durham County Correctional Facility identified the two players who has been arrested as Reade Seligmann of Essex Fells, N.J., and Collin Finnerty of Garden City, N.Y

Both men are sophomores.

Court officials unsealed the arrest warrants in the case this morning. The warrants, issued on Monday, noted that the men had agreed to turn themselves in at 5 a.m. today, and set their bail at $400,000. The warrant said that a court appearance was scheduled for 9:30 a.m., but by that time Mr. Sigelmann had had been released on bond.

For what it's worth - One of the two men, Reade Seligman, was a high school team mate of Ryan McFadyen, who, also per the Times,

had sent a crude, threatening e-mail message hours after the alleged attack. McFadyen was given an interim suspension when the email became public on April 5, the same day Duke President Richard H. Brodhead canceled the lacrosse season, accepted the resignation of the coach and announced a series of campus investigations.

Their Delbarton team was a powerhouse, apparently.

As to the case itself - my guess is that once the District Attorney gets past his election situation in early May, the wheels will fall off.  My sources in New Jersey assure me that there is nothing to this, but who knows?

Comments

[kim]

Play Ball.
====

[kim]

Ryan McFadyen plays defense.
===============

[kim]

And Reade scores.
============

[Sue]

I tell you what, if this DA is using these boys to get re-elected, he needs to be publicly humiliated, jailed and the keys tossed.

[Neo]

The indictments probably have nothing to do with the "alleged" rape, but rather go to the e-mail.

The standard hockey experience, the "third man in" thing, or in this case the third (pardon the pun) blow.

[topsecretk9]

LaShawn Barber has this observation:

Update III (11:17 a.m.): According to the search warrant, the accuser said three men named Adam, Bret, and Matt raped her, but Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty were charged with the rape. Hmmm…

[Hit The Bid]

I love your latent racist hope that the dirty, black stripper is punished for trying top bring down the good old boys of Duke.

Do you know that this "striper" is also a student and a mom? You are all nausiatingly part of that anti-PC backlash from the nineties based on white-opression.

Bottom line, and please deny this if you can...None of you have any idea whatsoever what the fuck happened (including me) But its fun to point out your bias for a change.

Boo YA!

[Sue]

You are right. You don't know what happened. And like I said, if the DA is using this to get re-elected then shame on him. Otherwise, I have not commented. You, however, don't mind reverse racism, do ya?

[Hit The Bid]

Oh yeah sue I love it! Its the best!

Give me a break...

[kim]

Hit the Bit just can't help galloping down the stretch, blinders on.
====================================

[Hit The Bid]

Admit it though...you want the DA to be wrong

[Christopher Taylor]

More to the point is this little tidbit of information: one of the guys she accused is known to have left the party early and was not there. This, combined with the fact that there is photographic evidence that she had bruises she claims were caused by the assault before she said it happened, and other details (like no DNA evidence) make this a very poor case for the prosecution.

Black woman blogger LaShawn Barber is all over this case in careful detail:

http://lashawnbarber.com/archives/2006/04/17/no-indictment/

By the way, Hit the Bid: you werent there and don't know the details either, why do you assume she's telling the truth? Bias against whites, or rich people, perhaps?

[Hit The Bid]

All I am doing is calling you guys out for your blatent bias against the DA and the accuser

[Hit The Bid]

Chris...are you really citing "evidence" to me from a blogging site? please email it to me when it is a court document. thanks

[Sue]

You don't even know what race we are. Or who our spouses are. Or who are grandchildren are. Or who are nieces and nephews are. Get over yourself. If racisim is calling the DA a schmuck if he is using this to ge re-elected, then so be it. However, I would say the same thing if the boys were black and the girl white or they were all the same color.

[kim]

All you are doing is projecting, HTB. You haven't much idea about 'our' racism, you labeller, you.
=======================

[Sue]

Assholes know no color boundary.

[kim]

Like oreos, generally paler on the inside.
==========================

[Hit The Bid]

See look how defensive you guys are getting! I was right! You do all want this to be farsical media pushed ploy by a greedy stripper!

Look, this a website for folks like you, of a more conservative mindset. I could sit here all day and have fun, but I only wanted to raise my point that there is latent racist hope on this issue that 1)the women is a low life money grubber who is 2) trying to besmirch these elite atheletes/students and that 3) the over agressive DA (ronnie earl-ish to you all??) and 4) the all to complicit liberal media defending the victim ( oh woops thats a conservative thing to do!!!)

I don't think you are all racist so much as suckers for that post-PC backlash from the 1990s so commonly voiced in defiance on Fox News and other crack-pot outlets.

You will be happy to know I will not interrupt this post again, and you can all resume your fun excercise and sorry for ruffling your feathers.

Best to you all, and be sure to stop in sometime for some iced tea!!!!

[kim]

You are so busy projecting you haven't even read my first posts, or if so, your bigotry is blinding you to what I said.

Sensitive? Yeah, to the liberals keeping the black folk dependent and needy. Ya'll Raw Pit Codger.
=================================

[windansea]

Hit the Bud...your bong awaits

[kim]

I don't think that DA wants to be hanged with a garland of spiral chemicals.
======================================

[Dan]

So the DNA results match none of the players and the DA's response is that he can prosecute without DNA evidence. He does it all the time. But in this case there is DNA evidence. Will it just be thrown our because it doesn't support HTB's conclusion that white kids are rapists?

[Sue]

LOL. Ronnie Earleish? You mean an incompetent DA? Yep. That is me. I hate imcompetent DAs. Because in case you haven't noticed, Delay and Earle are both white.

[topsecretk9]

Admit it though...you want the DA to be wrong

Admit it though...you WANT the DA to BE RIGHT!

[Gendarme]

Dukies! Dukies!

(go tarheels)

[Gerry]

Shit. This hits a lot closer to home than I had realized a day or two ago. I am originally from Garden City. My nephew, who just graduated HS last year, played on the Lax team there (Finnerty did not play for GC though; he went to the private school Chaminade). My niece's boyfriend is one of the guys on the now-disbanded Duke Lax team (he is not one of the accused and as far as I know was not at the party). She knows both of the guys who were arrested.

[Interrobanger]

Gendarme, I've looked at this timeline and I can't see anything about UNC at all.

[Awarder]

DING DING DING.. This post gets the award for most retarded defense of the duke players to date. Your sources in NJ? Who are you, the fucking director of the CIA?

[cfw]

Mr. Nifong says he has identification and a V who claims no consent, so he has enough to get to a jury. On the plus side, filing of charges should give lax players some rights to discovery. No doubt they want to see the med exam report. I suspect a high blood alcohol level, possible other evidence of intoxicants.

Perhaps Duke and other med schools should rethink how they train the nurses and MD's who do med exams in cases of alleged sex assault. It seems best to just record objective findings. Leave out comments about how the "affect" is consistent or not consistent with having been through a rape. Also leave out characterization of the observed injuries, if any, as consistent or not consistent with forced sex. The injuries are what they are. Let the jury decide what must have happened. Here, it looks like the MD and nurse came up with "false positive" med exam test results for rape.

I suspect the folks that sign up to do "rape kit" exams (should be "alleged rape kit" or simply "med exam") are naturally biased toward finding sex assault. Then, over time, I suspect they are trained and groomed primarily by DA's and police to become still more biased.

More broadly, it seems to me that Durham does not appreciate what Duke does for undergrads, or how property values in Durham are probably bolstered by having 6400 Duke undergrads.

Perhaps Duke should announce a plan to move undergrad slots elsewhere - say 25% to Redmond, Washington, and 25% to the San Francisco or San Diego area. Melinda Gates is a Duke grad, I think, and the Gates family could certainly seed a great undergrad campus away from the "we love to hate Duke" crowd in Durham.

With communications as cheap as they are now, and getting cheaper, well-endowed private universities can and should branch out geographically. Why not have Duke lead?

Duke already has away-from-Duke programs in places like Mexico, New York, etc. Princeton, Duke, Harvard, Yale etc. all encourage junior year abroad (or away from the home school).

From Durham City council sessions, one would think there is no underage drinking or noise at UNC or other colleges, only Duke. Duke needs to find and develop more facilities and programs away from the vocal and prominent "Duke folks are jerks" crowd in Durham.

Why not rotate the undergrads to places like NYC, Redmond, Mexico City, SF, San Diego, Dubai, London, instead of parking them in Durham for 4 years? Use the extra dorm space in Durham for students that are over 21. Or turn them into hotel space for academic conventions, married student housing, etc. Duke takes a huge hit in "beauty contests" before prospective top faculty and students because it is in Durham. Why not change that with infrastructure elsewhere?

[cfw]

Continued --

Duke already has away-from-Duke programs in places like Mexico, New York, etc. Princeton, Duke, Harvard, Yale etc. all encourage junior year abroad (or away from the home school).

From Durham City council sessions, one would think there is no underage drinking or noise at UNC or other colleges, only Duke. Duke needs to find and develop more facilities and programs away from the vocal and prominent "Duke folks are jerks" crowd in Durham.

Why not rotate the undergrads to places like NYC, Redmond, Mexico City, SF, San Diego, Dubai, London, instead of parking them in Durham for 4 years? Use the extra dorm space in Durham for students that are over 21. Or turn them into hotel space for academic conventions, married student housing, etc. Duke takes a huge hit in "beauty contests" before prospective top faculty and students because it is in Durham. Why not change that with infrastructure elsewhere?

[kim]

We award the Pulitzer Prize for humour to awarder. Don't you have sources in New Jersey?
=================================

[Hit The Bid]

Quit writing stuff about me guys/gals!! I told you I wasn't going to post on this thread anymore! Gosh!

[TM]

From the Light Hitter:

But its fun to point out your bias for a change.

I question the phrase "for a change".

[Other Tom]

How come Hit the Bid puts "stripper" in quotes?

[kim]

I bet on the Grey Mare,
I bet on the Bay.
But a dancin' and a prancin'
Came the Noble Stewball.
==============

[TM]

According to the search warrant, the accuser said three men named Adam, Bret, and Matt raped her...

In my casual youthful association with young troublemakers, using an alias (or everyone using the same name) was pretty common. I doubt kids have gotten stupider, and the use of fake names has been discussed in this case as well.

[kim]

The lacrosse players tired of making love to a stick, and fell in love with a stripper.
============================

[Hit The Bid]

Ok I apologize for this but....

If by "fell in love" you mean allegedly anally, orally, and vaginally rape her..then totally! Thats awesome!

[kim]

I think the veil is pierced.
================

[Hit The Bid]

she wore a veil?

[kim]

Uh, it was the one you've donned.
======================

[Hit The Bid]

Hey I stopped wearing a veil years ago!

[kim]

You are blind to this one.
================

[TM]

This Duke case reminds me of the Kobe Bryant debacle, with a Tailhook undercurrent.

As with Bryant, we have the racially/sexually/politically charged case with absurdly weak evidence. That evidence woul dget better if the DA could get some Duke party attendees to testify, but they haven't yet, and what will prompt them at this point? Civic duty? A (remote and unrealistic) fear of an obstruction indictment?

The Tailhook wrinkle is that *maybe* some of these guys will try to transfer to other programs, and be advised that their new school has no interest in accepting non-cooperating players.

But even there - if one or more of the players goes to the DA and says, well, I was drunk, I wasn't paying attention to who was coming or going, and I saw nothing - how do you disprove that, or fault him for not being forthcoming?

So, based on what we have so far, this case is sadly lacking in evidence. For example, she seems to have picked her assailants from phots. However, she was, by accounts, drunk, shaken up, on roofies, or something when she left - won't that undermine her credibility as an eye-witness?

Well - maybe the DA drops it, or maybe he goes to trial and lets the jury decide that, whether something bad happened or not, they can't convict anyone on the slim evidence. That, too, was my view of the Bryant case - the DA hoped that someone else would give the public the bad news that a crime could not be proven.

[Nice Guy]

Anonymous said...
Mark my words, these boys will be found innocent.And I hope they'll go after the accuser, DA, and Durham fr defirmation.

Nifong claims the boys are “stone walling”, but when the accusation was made, the police questioned the three boys who lived in the house for over six hours, not one asked for a lawyer. When the entire team was told they had to submit DNA samples, they didn’t call their parents or fight the warrant.
The boys cooperated completely. These aren’t the actions of guilty boys. Only when their parents witnessed the circus-like atmosphere created by District Attorney Mike Nifong, the boys were advised to remain quiet.
Nifong nationally proclaimed that he will indict the entire team for aiding and abetting. He doesn’t care whether anyone is innocent or guilty, or if he has to bulldoze over 50 boys to get to one. Nifong portrayed all of these boys as rapists while claiming that they’re hiding information because the only information they have is that the rape never occurred, and DNA evidence supports the boys’ story, and the second stripper coincides with the boys account of events, but it doesn’t matter.
Because of Nifong, these boys have already been convicted in the media. Their reputations destroyed as their names and pictures are widely distributed with hate slogans labeling them as rapist.
Nifong will get an indictment to avoid facing the racial tensions he stoked to near riot levels, then he will leave this “powder keg” to the next elected DA to handle the fallout, and when this case presents itself to be unfounded and accusations of “white privilege” force racial tensions to explode, I predict Mr. Nifong will be somewhere far far away on vacation.
When we think of a single mother, we picture a woman struggling to support herself and her children. Laura Grissim [Letters; April 14] plays on this stereotype to portray the Durham rape accuser/stripper as a stereotypical working single mom.
It’s amazing how just by claiming a person to be a “mother” puts a “halo” on her head. Ms. Grissom claims that some women have no other option to provide for herself and her children which paints a picture of a selfless martyr, but this is misleading especially regarding this particular “single mom”. This single mom and her children live with their grandfather so the threat of being homeless or hungry is unlikely. This single mom has been arrested in for larceny and evading police, which doesn’t fit the mold of “martyr”. This single mom arrived at the party inebriated and was found drunk and disorderly in a parking lot, but looking at this woman as an individual instead of a sexist stereotype reveals a more realistic picture of this single mom which dims her halo.
Ms. Grissom goes on to rants that criticizing this woman “hinges on blaming the victim”. This single mom is not a victim. This single mom is an “accuser”. There’s enough evidence to question her integrity and whether a crime actually occurred. I find it hypocritical that Ms. Grissom so easily gives this “single mom” the benefit of the doubt while condemning a group of boys who happen to be on a sports team. People should avoid stereotypes and focus on each individual, including the “accuser”, as a person.
The actions of District Attorney Mike Nifong have been reckless and irresponsible in playing out this case before the national media. This has inflamed racial stereotypes throughout Durham which makes it more important that everyone take a step back and let the police do their job. If this woman lied; thus exposing Nifong as a fool, then she should be prosecuted for this crime, which have destroyed these young boys’ lives and reputations. Being a “single mom” shouldn’t be an excuse to condone this type of behavior.
Rape shields were created in the 1970s to protect the alleged “victim” from having her reputation ruined by baseless assumptions, unfair judgments, public humiliation, and character assassinations, but any of this could describe what’s happening to every member of the lacrosse team.
Irresponsible “special interest groups” have held protests everyday holding the name and pictures of anyone on the lacrosse team, to having their pictures and hate slogans pasted all over school. The actions of these groups against these men are nothing short of harassment and unfair character assassination.
The boys are being tried in the national media before there is any charge are made. Nifong stated that someone else could have assaulted the 27 year old stripper, yet he publicly damned the men’s lacrosse team and only the men’s lacrosse team as gang rapist, and still not knowing whether or not the “alleged victim” was telling the truth, or if the three men sought are on the team, Nifong claims the team is stonewalling to protect its own.
In response, daily protest are held with hate comments made directly to the lacrosse teammates, pictures of the teammates with rape slogans are plastered all over Duke’s campus, and now gang members are driving by the east campus threatening students.
Nifong’s circus-like antics to perform for the national media has put the whole campus in danger.
Nifong proclaimed in the national media that the DNA sweep of 46 boys would find the guilty and clear the innocent. DNA tests prove that the boys of the lacrosse team were telling the truth, but Nifong wants to go ahead with the case only weeks before his election against a woman and a black man. There should be laws in place to prevent unscrupulous politician like District Attorney Mike Nifong from bulldozing over 47 innocent boys just to bask in the international media spot-light.
THe news that there’s no DNA evidense to link the boys to the stripper is not as curious as there’s no DNA to suggest a crime was ever cmmitted! Where’s her DNA?
Stripper claims: three men raped her on the bathroom rug,
Fact:
• No vaginal or seminal fluid, no skin, blood, or hair were found anywhere in the bathroom, bath towels, bath rug, door handle, bathroom floor, basin, water faucet handle, etc.
• A man cannot take off a condom and not get DNA from himself or the female on his hands and not transfer it to everything he touches?
• Accuser claims she was vaginally penetrated; accuser claims she was panicked and thought she was going to die; Where is her vaginal fluid, urine, or blood anywhere in the bathroom? Does her body defy basic physiology capable of keeping any ejaculate from spilling out?
• Accuser claims she was anally penetrated; Where’s her fecal material or scat smears in the bathroom? Does the accuser have inhuman anal sphinter control that prevented any of the ejaculate from dripping out?
• Accuser claims she was orally sodomized; where is DNA from her saliva and tears? Did she lick up every drop and swallowed any evidence?
Stripper claim bruises were result of an attack from three boys:
Fact: Time-stamped photos prove stripper arrived bruised and cut while drunk.
Nifong stated that a condom was used, if this is true than where is the spermicidal lubricant evidence? Where are the condoms? Where are the condom wrappers? Where is the empty condom box?
If no DNA material were present on the stripper, than why were DNA samples taken? The District Attorney vigorously claimed that these DNA evidence will clear the innocent.
The second stripper stated that she didn’t notice any rape, and when they got back in the car the “accuser” didn’t mention anything about being rape.
We have to consider the fact that this may be a common “false accusation of rape”, and she must be prosecuted for the harm she’s done to these men and to the entire Duhram community.
I was surprise of how many false rape accusations have been made by several independent surveys reveal that 42% to approximately half of all accusations made are false. Most cases involve divorce battles involving the custody of children, some for revenge for withdraw of affection, monetary gains, an excuse for infidelity, or misidentification.

• According to the FBI, one of every 12 claims of rape filed in the United States are later deemed 'unfounded,' meaning the case was closed because the alleged victim recanted or because investigators found no evidence of a crime.
• Howard County Police classified one out of every four rape allegations as unfounded in 1990-91.
• The National Association of Schoolmasters/Union of Women Teachers says around 600 teachers a year are falsely accused - a trebling since the 1989 Children's Act.
• Citing a recent USA Today article, discussing the miracle of DNA and FBI studies of sexual assault suspects, DNA testing exonerated about 30% to 35% of the more than 4,000 sexual assault suspects on whom the FBI had conducted DNA testing over the past three years.
• Purdue sociologist Eugene J. Kanin, in over 40% of the cases reviewed, the complainants eventually admitted that no rape had occurred (Archives of Sexual Behavior, Vol. 23, No. 1, 1994).
• 1985 the Air Force conducted a study of 556 rape accusations. Over 25% of the accusers admitted, either just before they took a lie detector test or after they had failed it, that no rape occurred.
• 1996 Department of Justice Report, of the roughly 10,000 sexual assault cases analyzed with DNA evidence over the previous seven years, 2,000 excluded the primary suspect, and another 2,000 were inconclusive.
• Linda Fairstein, who heads the New York County District Attorney's Sex Crimes Unit. Fairstein, the author of Sexual Violence: Our War Against Rape, says, "there are about 4,000 reports of rape each year in Manhattan. Of these, about 50% simply did not happen."
Craig Silverman, a former Colorado prosecutor known for his zealous prosecution of rapists during his 16-year career, says that false rape accusations occur with "scary frequency." As a regular commentator on the Bryant trial for It seems that every feminist wants thise stripper to have been raped because if she was, this is good as gold when political groups lobby the government for more money for women-only programs, but what feminist don’t want is to lime-light the problem of the flase accusations of rape that occurs more frequently that is known.

[Hit The Bid]

Nice try Nice Guy...talk about trying the case in the media...you're trying this one in the "new" media. Good work scoop. Maybe thesee men at DUke raped her...maybe they didn't...but this women was raped...that is a fact.

[Hit The Bid]

"every feminist wants thise stripper to have been raped because if she was, this is good as gold when political groups lobby the government for more money for women-only programs, but what feminist don’t want is to lime-light the problem of the flase accusations of rape that occurs more frequently that is known."

Wow dude...thats pretty fucked up. think about what you wrote for a second. Oh wait I get it!!!!!! "nice guy" is an ironic nickname. Ok carry on.

[windansea]

hit the bud...it's a fact she was raped?

were you there?

[Inspector Callahan]

but this women was raped...that is a fact.

No, it's not a fact yet, because it has not been proven yet. Facts "consistent" with rape (bruising, etc.), mean that it's POSSIBLE she was raped, NOT that there isn't any doubt. Funny how you state in your first comment:

None of you have any idea whatsoever what the fuck happened (including me)

Yet, now you know for a "fact" that she was raped. Care to enlighten us to the source of your newfound wisdom?

TV (Harry)