Duke Rape Case - Ho' Now

If she wasn't one then, she sure looks like one now. Looks like Drudge crashed the HeraldSun Server if the second link doesn't open.

During the March 31 broadcast of his national syndicated radio program, Rush Limbaugh referred to the alleged victim of a rape by members of the Duke University lacrosse team as a "ho"

Accuser had sex with at least four men and sexual device before party...

DURHAM -- The exotic dancer who has accused three Duke lacrosse players of gang-raping her was drinking while taking medication that night, and had sex with at least four men and a sexual device in the days immediately leading up to the off-campus party, according to court papers filed Thursday.

And despite what Durham police have contended, a medical examination showed no signs of the sort of sexual or physical attack of which the dancer complained, according to the motion filed by defense attorneys for Reade Seligmann.

Among other previously undisclosed details, the motion says the woman at one point accused her female dance partner of helping the lacrosse players rape her and of stealing her money.

And she told one medical staffer she drank at least 44 ounces of beer, and told another she took a powerful muscle relaxant and drank beer before going to the party at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd. on March 13.

Lawyers Kirk Osborn and Ernest Conner contend in the motion that police Investigator Benjamin Himan and the Police Department illegally and deliberately withheld those and other details that were damaging to their investigation.

For example, they say, Himan knew but did not mention in a probable-cause affidavit that two examining physicians said the dancer complained only of vaginal rape, even though some charges in the case are linked to allegations of oral and anal penetration.

Himan also neglected to note that the accuser told one doctor she was not hit and did not complain of any pain, or that she told the sexual assault nurse examiner she was not choked, according to the documents.

That conflicts with statements from police that the woman was kicked, strangled and beaten while being sexually assaulted.

Police officials wouldn't respond Thursday to questions about the documents.

"The Durham Police Department is not commenting on any specifics of the Duke lacrosse case," said police spokeswoman Kammie Michael.

The defense lawyers say the omitted information is critical to the case. Had it been included, they contend, police may not have gotten permission to perform a photo lineup that led to charges against three team members.

As a result, the lineup and any identifications obtained from it should be thrown out, Osborn and Conner argued.

If Himan had been forthcoming in an affidavit seeking the lineup March 23, they said, Superior Court Judge Ron Stephens would have had no legal basis for allowing the photographic identification procedure in the first place.

The new documents come as national media, three months after the alleged attack, continue to zero in on the lacrosse case.

USA Today ran another story Wednesday, Inside Higher Ed had a piece Thursday and the latest edition of the magazine Vanity Fair has an interview with Kim Roberts Pittman, the second dancer at the lacrosse team party. The latest edition of the Duke alumni magazine also features an account of the lacrosse case as its cover story.

The paperwork filed Thursday includes lengthy, handwritten statements from the second dancer and from the alleged victim's "driver," along with insights into the accuser's medical condition on the night in question.

Among numerous revelations, the documents say the alleged victim performed with a vibrator for other spectators before going to the North Buchanan Boulevard house late on March 13.

Defense lawyers said the vibrator, rather than a rape, might have caused "signs or symptoms of vaginal penetration."

In addition, the dancer told her driver she was "involved in some sexual manner with at least four different men" between March 10 and 12, and she admitted to a physician the next day that "she was drunk and had had a lot of alcohol that night," according to the documents.

The accuser's medical records were among nearly 1,300 pages of documentation defense lawyers got last month from District Attorney Mike Nifong.

Although the records remain sealed to the public, attorneys Osborn and Conner quoted from them extensively in Thursday's paperwork.

The other suspects in the case are David Evans, who graduated from Duke in May, and Collin Finnerty, like Seligmann a sophomore at the time of the alleged attack.

All three have claimed innocence and are free under $400,000 bonds as they await further legal developments.

The paperwork filed Thursday largely targeted Himan and omissions he allegedly made in seeking a photo lineup.

After seeing the lineup, the alleged victim said she could identify Seligmann and Finnerty with 100 percent certainty as being among three men who allegedly assaulted her. She said she was 90 pecent certain Evans was among them.

But defense lawyers recently revealed details of an earlier photo lineup in which the woman failed to identify Evans at all.

The lineups reportedly contained only pictures of Duke lacrosse players.

Comments

[jkatl]

Accuser had sex with at least four men and sexual device before party...

I think it is important to find out if the four "liasons" were fee-based, if so than yes, she certainly is a "ho", if not, well than she's just your garden variety everday slut-puppy. Either way she still could have been raped and if she was I hope those three Lax players don't get away with it.

[Moneyrunner]

jkatl, please keep up. This case is falling apart faster than cheap checked baggage. see here: http://moneyrunner.blogspot.com/2006/06/more-on-duke-rape-case-second-dancer.html

[Rick]

Does anyone else hear a ticking sound as they read this? I see this "case" blowing up in Nifong's face.

[FloridaPatty]

I'm willing to admit when I am wrong. I gave the girl support enlight of the stripping and circumstances. She's just doing a job. But then I read this:

In fact, in a highly unusual move, newly indicted defendant Evans went to so far as to volunteer to take a lie detector test at the direction of law enforcement. When the D.A. refused, Evans enlisted a top polygrapher to administer the test anyway. He passed.

...........

Yeah, I know polygraphs aren't the most reliable tool but a good tool nonetheless when you want to quickly rule out suspects.

Nifong better have a solid piece of evidence or he's going to find himself chasing his tail.

[annie]

Am finding it very hard to find much sympathy for this female, as how many allegations of rape is this now??

Bit of advice that I doubt she would take, but she should keep her clothes on and get a decent job!

Then next time she says she has been raped, perhaps more people will be inclined to believe her!!

[rwilymz]

It's possible to rape a prostitute, but "not paying" doesn't count. The jizz in her cootch matched her boyfriend's DNA. Cops and independent witnesses both characterize the "victim" as drunk or otherwise inebriated. Her fellow out-call stripper has changed stories at least once [and for legal considerations from the DA's office, no less]. And the uncontest-ed/-able photographic timeline doesn't give anywhere near enough time as is claimed.

Even without the misconduct [to politely term it] coming from Nifong's office it's an uphill conviction. The whole thing together is more like cliff-scaling.

[Sgt. York]

RE: It's possible to rape a prostitute, but "not paying" doesn't count.

I have to agree with this. If some schmuck has sex with a prostitute and runs off without paying it's theft-of-services. If I was on a jury there is no way I would send some lame-azz guy to prison for twenty years and put him on the sex offender list for life because he stiffed a prostitute eighty-bucks.

Of course, in the DUKE case none of the students had sex with this women and none of them raped her. There is phographic evidence, police logs, initial incident reports, and eyewitness testomony from the neighbor and dozens of people who were actully present inside the house who will testify that no rape occured.

[tk]

Were the hell is the judge in this case. He set bail at 400,000 dollars on a faulty id line up and a incomplete medical report. It is his job to revisit his ruling and make the prosecutor to bring better evidence or dismiss on probable cause.

[rwilymz]

In a grand jury, the prosecutor is not obliged to provide exculpatory evidence. That's one thing Nifong did *not* do wrong. ...technically.

But, that said, his ultimate objective is obtaining a conviction. You don't get a conviction, you waste tax dollars; you waste tax dollars chasing wild geese you don't get re-elected. He has to know that all these other things are going to come out, and they are incredibly damaging to his case. From a cold, dispassionate "can I win it" perspective, it's a long-shot at best, and 97 out of 100 prosecutors would not have gone to a grand jury but continued "investigating" until the victim went away.

...so you have to wonder why Nifong went to the grand jury. What else was going on? Just the election?