Two Duke LaCrosse Players Arrested

                          

From: newsobserver.com | Two arrests made in Duke lacrosse case

More than a month after a woman told police she was raped at Duke University lacrosse party, two players, Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty, were charged with first degree forcible rape, first degree sexual offense and kidnapping in connection with a reported rape at a Duke lacrosse party, according to George Naylor, director of the Durham County Jail.

Bond was set for each player at $400,000, Naylor said.

District attorney Mike Nifong did not speak publicly about the arrests, but he issued a written statement.

"It had been my hope to be able to charge all three of the assailants at the same time, but the evidence available to me at this moment does not permit that. The investigation into the identity of the third assailant will continue in the hope that he can also be identified with certainty. It is important that we bring the assailant to justice but also that we lift the cloud of suspicion from those team members who were not involved in the assault," the statement said.

Seligmann, a sophomore from Essex Fells, N.J., and Finnerty, a sophomore from Garden City, N.Y., emerged from a sheriff's deputy vehicle and were led, handcuffed, into the magistrate's office at 4:54 a.m. today.

Later this morning, Finnerty and his lawyer, Bill Cotter, appeared in a Durham Superior Courtroom for a routine first appearance. Finnerty signed a form waiving court-appointed counsel, and his lawyer told Superior Court Judge Ronald Stephens that his client understood the charges. Seligmann's attorney, Kirk Osborn, appeared for his client. The judge set court days for both men on May 15.

Earlier, Cotter said he was surprised by the indictments but downplayed their significance.

"The (grand) jury only heard one side of the story. They almost always indite. The next jury will hear the entire story, which will include our evidence. We're confident that these young men will be found innocent."

Kirk Osborn, Seligmann's attorney, said, "We're looking forward to showing that he is absolutely innocent as soon as we can." Julian Mack, who represented Seligmann before today's arrest, said the charges are unfounded. "I'm devastated that he's been charged," he said. "It's a terrible, terrible mistake."

Seligmann and Finnerty's arrests stem from a party that began March 13. The accuser, who is a mother of two, an N.C. Central University student and an escort service dancer, told police March 14 that she was sexually assaulted by three men in a bathroom at an off-campus house shared by three lacrosse team captains. The accuser is black; she said her rapists were white.

                  

Just after 7 a.m., Seligmann and another man left the jail and ran to a Ford Explorer with New Jersey license plates. They pulled onto Pettigrew Street and went to the traffic light at Pettigrew and Mangum streets. They stopped at a red light, waited for traffic to clear, and then turned left, running the red light.

Defense lawyers said players maintain that there was no sex at all. They said the accuser concocted the story, that she was drunk and injured late March 13 when she arrived at the three-bedroom house at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd.

"Two young men have been charged with crimes they did not commit. This is a tragedy," Bob Ekstrand, who represents team players, said Monday in a prepared statement. "For the two young men, an ordeal lies ahead. They do not face it alone; they face it with the love of family and friends and strengthened by the truth. They are both innocent."

Superior Court Judge Ronald Stephens sealed a manila envelope containing the indictments shortly after the grand jury finished its business Monday. The judge cited a state law that requires everyone involved in a case, including witnesses, to keep the indictment secret until a suspect is arrested.

Last month, a judge ordered DNA tests on the team's 46 white players; he excluded the only black team member. The players' attorneys say the tests showed none of the players' genetic material on or in the woman.

Nifong, bolstered by a medical exam that found injuries on the woman consistent with sexual assault, says he is confident that she was assaulted in the university-owned house. Nifong said last week at a forum at NCCU that the accuser identified at least one of her attackers.

Until Sunday night, the only other witness, the second woman hired to dance at the party, had remained silent. In television interviews, she told her story.

The woman's attorney, Mark Simeon of Durham, declined Monday to make her available for an interview. She spoke on the MSNBC cable news network, which did not identify her and showed her in silhouette. Simeon confirmed that it was his client on MSNBC.

The woman told MSNBC that she did not witness a rape and does not know whether one occurred.

The woman said she arrived thinking that she would be dancing at a bachelor party of 15 people. She was not expecting a party of lacrosse players, many of whom she said were in a drunken stupor. The woman said she was infuriated to learn that some players photographed her dancing.

The accuser did not appear to be on drugs or to have been drinking when she arrived, the second dancer said. She was "absolutely fine and in control of herself."

When the accuser left, less than an hour after she arrived, she was incoherent and stumbling, the second dancer said.

"She couldn't really walk on her own," the woman said. "She really couldn't get her thoughts together enough to answer any questions. ... She was a different person than I met at the beginning."

The second woman said she was the person who called 911 as the party was breaking up, to complain that some lacrosse players had used racial slurs. "The boys hollered the 'N' word," she said. "I was upset and called 911."

She said she pretended to be a passer-by because she didn't want people in her life to know about her job as an escort service dancer.

It is unclear how that woman's story would affect the case. Players' attorneys have said she would only help them. By day's end Monday, Nifong left without talking to reporters; it remains unclear what evidence he has.

Throughout Monday, there were many more reporters on the sixth floor of the courthouse than the 18 members of the grand jury panel. Reporters tracked the district attorney's movements in minute detail. Just after noon, Nifong emerged from his office and walked across the hallway to the bathroom.

Reporters surrounded the bathroom door in a crowd that included five television cameras, three still photographers, sound men with boom microphones and at least a dozen print reporters. At the sound of flushing, the group tensed, raised cameras and prepared. Nifong did not emerge with news.

"I no longer get to go anywhere in my community without people knowing who I am," said Nifong, who faces two challengers in a primary election May 2.

VIDEO OF PLAYERS BEING ARRESTED FROM CHARLOTTE.COM:  Video Player