Two sealed indictments are handed up in the Duke University lacrosse rape investigation, a source tells CNN.
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Duke Lacrosse rape indictments
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Duke Lacrosse rape indictments
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Duke University lacrosse team players were not among those publicly indicted by a grand jury Monday, but the grand jury handed down two sealed indictments, NBC News has learned, and they are related to the rape allegations, CNN reported, citing unnamed sources.
Eighty-one indictments were returned by the grand jury, and none of the cases presented were rejected. It was not known whether any indictments in the Duke case may have been among the 24 cases “carried forward” to be heard at a later date.
Bill Thomas, an attorney for one of the lacrosse team’s captains, said he met with prosecutors at the Durham County Courthouse and it was his understanding that the panel considered the Duke case Monday.
Officers investigating the case were also among those at the courthouse, but because grand jury proceedings are secret it was not known if they testified.
A 27-year-old black woman told police she was attacked March 13 by three white men in a bathroom at a party held by the lacrosse team.
Attorneys for lacrosse team members had expected the panel to hear on Monday from District Attorney Mike Nifong, who for more than a month has been investigating the allegations made by the woman.
The next session of the grand jury is scheduled to be held in two weeks.
The racially charged allegations have led to near daily protest rallies. The school canceled the highly ranked team’s season and accepted the resignation of coach Mike Pressler after the release of a vulgar and graphic e-mail that was sent by a team member shortly after the alleged assault.
Defense attorneys have urged Nifong to drop the case, saying DNA tests failed to connect any of the 46 team members tested to the alleged victim.
Nifong has said 75 percent to 80 percent of rape prosecutions lack DNA evidence. According to court records, a medical examination of the woman found injuries consistent with rape.
Earlier, the exotic dancer identified two players with 100 percent certainty and a third at 90 percent as having raped her at a party last month, ABC News reported Monday, citing what Durham County prosecutors told the players' attorneys.
ABC News also obtained an audio recording in which a female security guard, who possibly was the first person to see the alleged victim, said she did not mention anything about a rape and that there were no signs that a sexual assault occurred.
"There ain't no way she was raped — ain't no way, no way that happened," the guard purportedly tells a private investigator in the recording, ABC News reported. The guard had called 911, after which police found the alleged victim at a grocery store parking lot, where the guard was working.
The tape was recorded April 3, three weeks after the alleged sexual assault, ABC News reported. On the tape, the guard says she called 911 after a driver of a car entered the grocery store and said that a woman — the alleged victim — refused to get out of her car.
The guard said the driver said she picked up the alleged victim, whom she had never met, after hearing people yell racial slurs at her as she was walking down the street, ABC News reported.
The guard further says on the tape that she smelled alcohol on the driver , but not the alleged victim, and that the alleged victim was unable to talk, ABC News said.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12289760/
Eighty-one indictments were returned by the grand jury, and none of the cases presented were rejected. It was not known whether any indictments in the Duke case may have been among the 24 cases “carried forward” to be heard at a later date.
Bill Thomas, an attorney for one of the lacrosse team’s captains, said he met with prosecutors at the Durham County Courthouse and it was his understanding that the panel considered the Duke case Monday.
Officers investigating the case were also among those at the courthouse, but because grand jury proceedings are secret it was not known if they testified.
A 27-year-old black woman told police she was attacked March 13 by three white men in a bathroom at a party held by the lacrosse team.
Attorneys for lacrosse team members had expected the panel to hear on Monday from District Attorney Mike Nifong, who for more than a month has been investigating the allegations made by the woman.
The next session of the grand jury is scheduled to be held in two weeks.
The racially charged allegations have led to near daily protest rallies. The school canceled the highly ranked team’s season and accepted the resignation of coach Mike Pressler after the release of a vulgar and graphic e-mail that was sent by a team member shortly after the alleged assault.
Defense attorneys have urged Nifong to drop the case, saying DNA tests failed to connect any of the 46 team members tested to the alleged victim.
Nifong has said 75 percent to 80 percent of rape prosecutions lack DNA evidence. According to court records, a medical examination of the woman found injuries consistent with rape.
Earlier, the exotic dancer identified two players with 100 percent certainty and a third at 90 percent as having raped her at a party last month, ABC News reported Monday, citing what Durham County prosecutors told the players' attorneys.
ABC News also obtained an audio recording in which a female security guard, who possibly was the first person to see the alleged victim, said she did not mention anything about a rape and that there were no signs that a sexual assault occurred.
"There ain't no way she was raped — ain't no way, no way that happened," the guard purportedly tells a private investigator in the recording, ABC News reported. The guard had called 911, after which police found the alleged victim at a grocery store parking lot, where the guard was working.
The tape was recorded April 3, three weeks after the alleged sexual assault, ABC News reported. On the tape, the guard says she called 911 after a driver of a car entered the grocery store and said that a woman — the alleged victim — refused to get out of her car.
The guard said the driver said she picked up the alleged victim, whom she had never met, after hearing people yell racial slurs at her as she was walking down the street, ABC News reported.
The guard further says on the tape that she smelled alcohol on the driver , but not the alleged victim, and that the alleged victim was unable to talk, ABC News said.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12289760/
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