Stripper's Story Refuted - So What?

CBS will break something resembling news when they air their coverage of the Duke lacrosse case this Sunday:

Duke Dancers Give Different  Accounts

 The dancing partner of the woman who accuses three Duke University lacrosse players of raping her refutes a key part of her partner's account of the alleged crime.

Kim Roberts, who danced at the same party where the alleged rape took place, makes the revelation in an interview with 60 Minutes correspondent Ed Bradley this Sunday, Oct. 15, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

Roberts' answer to Bradley's question directly contradicts a crucial statement the accuser gave to police. Bradley asks whether she, Roberts, who goes by the stage name "Nikki" when she performs, was holding onto the accuser at the beginning of the alleged crime.

Says Bradley, "In the police statement, [accuser] describes the rape in this way: 'Three guys grabbed Nikki,' 'That's you,'" says Bradley, "'Brett, Adam and Matt grabbed me. They separated us at the master bedroom door while we tried to hold on to each other. Bret, Adam and Matt took me into the bathroom.' Were you holding on to each other? Were you pulled apart?"

"Nope," replies Roberts, who says she was hearing this account for the first time.

Roberts also denies the accuser's statement to the police that after the alleged rape, Roberts came into the bathroom and helped one of the rapists dress her.

When pressed by Bradley about whether she saw signs of rape from the accuser, such as complaining about pain or a mention of an assault, Roberts says, "She obviously wasn't hurt ... because she was fine."

This is all interesting and newsworthy to inhabitants of this space-time continuum.  However, District Attorney Nifong has already explained to the judge and the defense that the normal rules of space and time won't apply in this case:

        Three Duke lacrosse players took five to 10 minutes to sexually assault a woman hired to perform as a stripper at a team party, and not the 30 minutes she originally described to investigators, a prosecutor said Friday.

"When something happens to you that is really awful, it can seem like it takes place longer than it actually takes," District Attorney Mike Nifong said.

Nifong's comments came as Superior Court Judge W. Osmond Smith III denied a defense request that prosecutors provide a detailed accounting of the alleged assault, including the exact time, place and type of sexual act the accuser said each defendant committed.

...

Kirk Osborn, who represents Seligmann, said the defense needed the "bill of particulars" because the accuser has told several different versions of the alleged assault, and his client has a right to know which version prosecutors will present at trial. In search and arrest warrants issued early in the investigation, police stated the accuser told investigators she was assaulted for 30 minutes.

Nifong said he is not required to state the exact time of the alleged attack, but offered that authorities believe it took place between 11:30 p.m. on March 13, when the accuser arrived at the party, and 12:55 a.m. on March 14, when police arrived and found no one at the house.

The basic prosecution position seems to be, hey, it happened - where, when, who and how don't matter.

Columnist Ruth Sheehan of the Durham News Observer is pretty unhappy with the "choices" on the ballot for District Attorney this November:

Next month, Durham voters choose between the following:

* The sitting district attorney, Mike Nifong, who won a tight primary in a Democratic town just as criticism of his handling of the Duke lacrosse mess was starting to heat up.

* County Commissioner Lewis Cheek, a fellow Democrat whose supporters gathered a mountain of petitions to get him on the ballot -- but who later announced that, if elected, he would not serve. Cheek is endorsed by the Anybody But Nifong and Recall Nifong-Vote Cheek campaigns, which recommend electing Cheek and letting the governor pick his stand-in.

* Write-in candidate and local Republican Party Chairman Steve Monks, who would do everyone a favor by quitting his campaign, which is destined to further muddle an already murky situation. Sure to siphon off some of the "anybody-but" vote, Monks' biggest secret supporter might be Nifong.

What a choice. Or should I say, nonchoice?

It is possible this runaway Nifong train will be stopped come November.

And yes, if this "60 Minutes" piece counts as an October surpsise, I am all for it.

Comments

[Neo]

normal rules of space and time won't apply in this case

QED ... Twlight Zone

[topsecretk9]

TM

YOUR SERVICES ARE BEING REQUEST by >Hugh Hewitt!

[anonymous]

...

The basic prosecution position seems to be, hey, it happened - where, when, who and how don't matter.

That sounds remarkably like the Foley sexless nonscandal.

But I don't get paid by Nifong, so I have no comment on this particular case.

[Daddy]

It is unfortunate that these three accused Duke students weren't Congressional Pages for a summer way back during high school. That way they could concoct some lurid victim stories, true or not, about Foley hitting on them as teenagers. This would compel the MSM to immediately magnify their every utterance damning Republican's into Gospel, and this would instantly exhonerate them in this phony rape trial, because their value in being used as expendable pawns to win an Election victory for the Democrats on a national level would far outweigh Nifong's using them as expendable pawns to win a Democratic election on a State level.

[Cecil Turner]

"When something happens to you that is really awful, it can seem like it takes place longer than it actually takes," District Attorney Mike Nifong said.

Hmm, that reminds me of something.

Oh, yeah:
• Gambini: How could it take you five minutes to cook your grits when it takes the entire grit-eating world 20 minutes?
• Tipton: Um... I'm a fast cook, I guess.
• Gambini: What? I'm sorry I was over there. Did you just say you were a fast cook? Are we to believe that boiling water soaks into a grit faster in your kitchen than any place on the face of the earth?
• Tipton: I don't know.
• Gambini: Perhaps the laws of physics cease to exist on your stove. Were these magic grits? Did you buy them from the same guy who sold Jack his beanstalk beans?

It is possible this runaway Nifong train will be stopped come November.

If so, will a comedy classic die abornin'?

[jwest]

Does Hewitt think the services of the JOM Research Group are free?

[maryrose]

Nifong must be defeated in November. If the voters in North Carolina are smart they will realize this and send him packing. He is a runaway prosecutor and these college students are paying a high price for his political ambitions. If he loses in November they will drop this case in a heartbeat because there is no chance in hell that they can win it.

[Appalled Moderate]

Cecil:

I gotta respect a guy who can work My Cousin Vinnie into a blog comment....

[Cecil Turner]

It's a gift. [blush]

[windansea]

The Captain has something interesting on Reid's land deal

Was Patrick Lane Development In Rory Reid's District?
Earlier this morning I wrote about Rory Reid, Harry Reid's son, and his position on the Clark County Board of Commissioners around the same time that his father's Patrick Lane LLC benefited from a zoning change that allowed commercial/retail development of their parcels. It turns out that the district Rory represents includes Patrick Lane, and the Las Vegas Review Journal noted that in an October 2004 article on the development of a new Wal-Mart. This comes from Lexis-Nexis and has no link, but the article is dated October 5, 2004

Captain's Quarters

[Daddy]

Forget Mr Gambini, where the heck is Matlock? Heck I'd even settle for Sheriff Taylor and Barney.

"Andy, I think those boy's done it, so that's why 4 months after the fact I'm typing up 30 pages of notes from my 2 pages of scribbles from that night. This'll put those boys right where they belong, right behind bars with Otis. Opie, run home and tell Aunt Bee she better cook up an extra 3 meals for the jailhouse tonight."

"OK Barney," answers Opie, and skitters off home.

"Yep", says Barney with satisfaction, propping feet up on desk, hands behind head, "That prosecutor'll be so greatful he'll make me a detective working the Raleigh beat before you can say Mount Pilot."

"Barn, those boy's ain't guilty. Even Gomer knows that."

"Gomer?, This is serious police business Andy, serious police business. What's Gomer know about that?"

"Gomer, git in here."

"Hi Andy, Hi Barn. Gawl-ly Barney, that's a lot of paper work. What 'cha typin'?

"Police business, Gomer, SERIOUS police business, can't be bothered."

"Now Gomer, Barney here thinks them Duke boys are guilty. What about you?

"Well, uh aw shucks Andy...I don't know."

"Now Gomer, look at these 2 pictures I'm a' holding up. This one, this pretty one, she's the alleged victim. This other one's the one from the CBS interview, the other dancer."

"CBS!!! We gonna' be on TV Andy, we gonna' be on TV?"

"Gomer, just quiet down, guiet down. Now please just look at the pictures."

"Uh huh, I'm lookin' Andy, I'm lookin'. I'm lookin' real hard."

"Now Gomer, the prosecution's case says this one, this pretty one, is the victim of the Duke boy's, and that this other one, this CBS one who was there all night, didn't even so much as get a good night kiss. Are these Duke boy's innocent?"

"Shizzamm, Andy!, They're innocent. It couldn't a happened that-a-way like that prosecutor fella' says. Couldn't a happened."

"Now Gomer, will you tell Deputy Fife here why those boys are innocent."

"Sure Andy, 'Cause gosh Barn, Andy went to UNC Chapel Hill, and everybody there knows that Duke boys don't ever pick the pretty one's, they go ugly early, jus' like they do in the Marine Corps which I'm joining next week."

"Aw gosh darn it Andy, this was gonna' be my ticket to the big city. They got real crime there you know, serious crime. And what are we gonna' do with all that extra food Opie's tellin' Aunt Bee to make tonight?"

"Hey Otis, can you handle 3 extra helpings of Aunt Bee's meatloaf this evening?"

"Burp".

[ed in texas]

You forgot:
"Andy, Andy, Gimme My Buwwet"
(I'll shut up now.)

[Gary Maxwell]

This case long ago was stripped bare of all semblance of rationality. On the one hand we have the multiple changing story of a stripper with a drinking problem and an arrest and conviction record that could have meant probation violation ( thus a motivation to lie ). Everything thing else about the case screams malicious prosecution. Mix in the outrageous conduct of the faculty at Duke with the outrageous conduct of the Democrat district Attorney and you have a perfect travesty.

[bkdheih]

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[Daddy]

TM,
Can we please have a ruling from the chair on these increasing spam posts in Chinese.

I think we can all agree that when complete nut jobs post in English we generally term them "Moon Bats." However, when similar mindless nut jobs post in Chinese, especially when it is very close to the Chinese Lunar Festival, may I suggest we call 'em "Moon-Cake Bats."

Moon Cakes you'll recall, are that Asian pastry, traditionally passed around this time of year as representing the mid Autumn Full Moon in the Chinese Lunar Calendar.

I say this in the full spirit of 'Today's' sort of enlightened P.C. sensitivity and non-judgmentalism, and also as a guy who would personally feel just awful if these Chinese "Moon-Cake Bat" a-hole's thought I was lumping them in with our own home grown variety of tin foil hatted, pond scum, troll species of "Moon Bat" a-hole's, without nods to that proud cultural heritage that is their due.

Just a suggestion. Kumbaya.

[Patton]

NOW RULE!

Women do not lie about rape/sexual assault.

NOW Exception to the rule:

Women left alone with Bill Clinton.

[Paul from Georgia]

Durham voters are so Democratic that they will keep Nifong unless the '60 Minutes' coverage gets pushed in the local media. The Durham paper won't help, but the Raleigh one might.

[Patton]

CAN'T HIDE GERRY STUDDS NOW MAINSTREAMMEDIA/DEMOCRATS:

BOSTON (AP) An official at Boston Medical Center says former U.S. Rep. Gerry Studds, the first openly gay person elected to Congress, has died

[Janet]

Patton,

Bugger off....so to speak.

[Cecil Turner]

. . . they go ugly early, jus' like they do in the Marine Corps which I'm joining next week."

This is true, but I don't think it gets the proper nod to tactical excellence (for which the USMC is properly famous), and is commonly construed as a lack of standards (which is likely also true, but we don't like to talk about that so much). As studies show, "women are prettier at closing time," and "Women get pickier about whom they date the more options they have." So it stands to reason that waiting 'til closing time will result in more competition and reduced likelihood of success. Hence the perfectly sound tactical advice to pursue the less pursued before it's too late. Which, by the way, is reflected in the full quote:

Go ugly early, beat the rush.

[Forbes]

Leave it to CT to add a patina to the phrase, "go ugly early"!

;-)

[Gary Maxwell]

Well if Durham elects Nifong after the piece 60 minutes just did on him and his jihad, they deserve the government they get. It really was pretty well done, and I am not a 60 Minutes fan at all but am aquainted with the facts of this case and they got it right. Basically a black man ( Ed Bradley ) interviewed a black man ( Professor Coleman of Duke) in the most devastating part of the whole segment. Coleman says right out that Nifong's conduct is unethical and Bradley tells the viewers his motivation was winning an election and pandering to Black voters. Anyone watching and not already fully aquainted with the case had to be stunned.

[John Loki]

Durham has turned into San Francisco lite.

[ed]

Hmmmm.

What I thought was absolutely amazing, and something that I didn't know, was that neither the DPD nor the DA's office had interviewed one of the accused.

Ever.

What an astonishing thing!

[DougJ]

Whatever happened there, it was Clinton's fault. I've got to wonder if Joe Wilson was possibly involved somehow as well.

Captain's Quarters is saying that this same exotic dancer helped kill Vince Foster.

It's all food for thought, definitely.

[Gary Maxwell]

TM

I thought DougJ was on your persona non grata list? With asinine comments like these, wont bother me for you to send him back to haunt Mr. Cole's place.

[Ed]

The Durham Paper is the Herald Sun. The Sheehan quote is from the News and Observer out of Raleigh.