Story not lining up for the Tawana Brawley sisters. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/11/60minutes/main2082140.shtml
Hopefully some justice for the lacrosse players soon??? By CHRIS FRANCESCANI and EAMON McNIFF ABC News Law & Justice Unit Oct. 30, 2006 â The second dancer in the Duke rape case has said for the first time that the accuser told her to "go ahead, put marks on me" after the alleged attack. Dancer Kim Roberts made the new allegation â which she has not shared with authorities â in an interview with Chris Cuomo that aired today on "Good Morning America." Roberts' allegation comes after Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong's admission in court last week that he has not yet interviewed the accuser "about the facts of that night." As she drove the accuser from the March 2006 Duke lacrosse party, Roberts told ABC News the woman was clearly impaired and "talking crazy." Roberts said she tried several different times to get the accuser out of her car. "The trip in that car from the house ⦠went from happy to crazy," Roberts told Cuomo. "I tried all different ways to get through to her." "I tried to be funny and nice," she said. "Then I tried to, you know, be stern with her. ⦠We're kind of circling around, and as we're doing that, my last-ditch attempt to get her out of the car, I start to kind of, you know, push and prod her, you know." Roberts said she told the woman, "Get out of my car. Get out of my car." "I ⦠push on her leg. I kind of push on her arm," Roberts said. "And clear as a bell, it's the only thing I heard clear as a bell out of her was, she said â she pretty much had her head down, but she said plain as day â 'Go ahead, put marks on me. That's what I want. Go ahead.'" Roberts said the comments "chilled me to the bone, and I decided right then and there to go to the authorities."
Don't forget the prominent white student body also holding a rally in her defense including several women rights organizations. By the way, the fact that the prosecutor has not sat down with his client to discuss what happen that night is just bizarre considering he's very aggressive in going after the Duke players. Mark
Black Duke Lacrosse Player Speaks, says race is an issue. The only black player on the Duke University men's lacrosse team has come forward amid a rape investigation, saying that his three white teammates who have been accused of raping a stripper have been stereotyped by class and skin color. "It's almost a reversal,'' Devon Sherwood, 19, said in an interview Tuesday morning on ABC's "Good Morning America," adding that it's been assumed by many in Durham that the players' parents are going to just use their money to hire hot-shot lawyers to get them out of their predicament. "It's just been all the stereotypes... I've even been stereotyped for being rich, being on full scholarship, [being] not in touch with my own black community at Duke... It's terrible to find yourself being stereotyped," Sherwood continued. "And you're like, 'Hold on, this couldn't be much further from the truth ⦠It's just amazing that the things you see and that [were] going on in this case and how the reversal from black stereotype to now rich white, privileged stereotype.'' "It's almost like I'm leaving them...it's like I'm not there with my troops. That's the kind of sense I felt," he said of not being tested. Sherwood told ABC he finds it "impossible'' to believe that the rape allegations are true, given the good character of his teammates. "I'm 100 percent confident ⦠I know nothing indeed happened that night at all," he said. "I believe in the character of my teammates. I believe in the character of specifically [the three defendants]. I would never ever... doubt them or think, 'Well, are they lying?' I would never do that, because I believe in them."
Breaking news... December 22, 2006 Rape Charges Dropped Against Duke Players By DUFF WILSON DURHAM, N.C. Dec. 22 â The district attorney today dropped rape charges against three former Duke University lacrosse players, but plans to go forward with sexual assault and kidnapping charges, his office said today. Michael B. Nifong, the Durham district attorney, made the decision after learning on Thursday that the woman who complained of rape could not be sure that she had been penetrated with a penis, a distinction that would determine whether what happened to her meets the legal definition of forcible rape in North Carolina. When she was interviewed on Thursday by an investigator from the district attorneyâs office, the woman said she could not be certain she had been penetrated by a penis in her vagina and rectum, according to a person close to the investigation who would only speak on condition of anonymity. The woman had said she was penetrated from behind while she was bent over with her face toward the floor, but did not know with what, the source said. Penetration with an object is considered sexual assault, not rape, officials said. There also is no DNA evidence found on the woman from any of the accused men, investigators have said. "With the absence of DNA and her not knowing what was going on, itâs the right thing to do and it probably makes the rest of the case stronger," the source said. The three former players, David F. Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade W. Seligmann, have vigorously denied any guilt and said they had no sexual contact with their accuser. Maria Newman contributed reporting for this article. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/22/sports/22cnd-duke.html ____________ Now, I always try to be as neutral as I can be, without really knowing all the relevant facts. Yet... 8 months later, the DA has just "learned" on "Thursday" [yesterday] that a penis may not have been involved, after all?! Wow. Was this entire case nothing more than a largely election-motivated (for the DA office) cause celebre?
Wouldn't you think you would nail down proof of all the elements of a crime BEFORE charging them? Not being able to say she was actually penised is not exactly a minor technical detail. Of course, what is really happening is that this racist prosecution has fallen apart and the DA is hanging on to the only parts that cannot be factually disproved. This is kind of a bizarre reverse-OJ situation. The prosecutor is making it a patently racist plea for a jury to vote their race, not the evidence. The scary thing is that if these defendants had not been rich and privileged, they could have been railroaded. They still could be.
By the time all is said and done, the families of the falsely accused will have paid out a sh*tload in lawyer fees. Nifong is a real piece of work.
It seems we're falsely accused quite a bit by those different than us. They do it cuz they're racist.