Some fascinating information on the case. Including the name of the accuser which is now all over the internet.
Evidence
Two strippers show up at a lacrosse party, where they are to be paid $400 each for a couple hours of dancing. They are 27 and 31---suprise on you, Dukies, you gets the dregs! The Dukies ask them if they brought any dildos (reasonable question, in my experience with call strippers they usually answer in the affirmative), and they say no. Dukies make a wisecrack about using a broom handle, the chicks decide they've had enough of this bunch of crackers and they will leave after about 5 minutes. Dukies get pissed, and the girls lock themselves in the bathroom. Dukies slip money under the door and try to get them to stay.
Several pictures are taken as the women leave, with timestamps. Around 12:03 or so, the women have apparently stopped dancing. The go into the bathroom for about twenty minutes, together. A photo timestamped 12:30 shows the accuser, Crystal Gail Mangum (the press insists on publishing mugshots of the accused, but protecting the accuser---I am not the press), outside on the doorstoop, smiling. 12:37 - she is lying on her side on the stoop, her ankle and leg are bleeding and her elbow is scraped. 12:41 - one of the Dukies is helping her get into a car.
Mangum is drunk as sh*t and has been stumbling the whole time.
Her pahtnah, Kim Roberts, hasn't been paid yet, she thinks she's getting scammed. As they're leaving, some racial comments are made ("Hey bitch, thank your grandaddy for my fine cotton shirt") and Roberts calls the police to report a racial slur.
They go to a local store, where Roberts tells a cop there is a passed out chick in her car. The cops agree---that is one passed out chick---and they take her to a clinic. Later, Mangum claims she was held down, beaten, strangled, and raped orally, vaginally, and anally. They do all kinds of rape kit tests on her.
The cops take over. They interview Mangum, and she gives them three first names, none of which are the names of men eventually indicted. They show Mangum a photo-lineup---MADE UP OF A POWERPOINT PRESENTATION OF PICTURES OF THE DUKE LACROSSE TEAM---and she picks out two guys, "100% certain."
They do DNA swabs on every Duke player at the party---except the black one, since the accuser only pointed the finger at honkeys. The DA talks about his excellent case.
DNA comes up negative---which is strange, considering they did tests on her only hours after the alleged attack. No DNA from anyone at the party is found anywhere on the woman. "They could have used condoms," says the DA.
Mangum made no claim of condoms. There is no trace evidence of latex or spermicide. There is no DNA from any of them under her nails or anywhere else on her. Maybe they covered their entire bodies with saran wrap!
But indictments came anyway. There's an election coming, we can't have those Dukies getting away with anything now. As NCCU student Chan Hall told Newsweek, "It's the same old story. Duke up, Central down." Hall said he wanted to see the Duke students prosecuted "whether it happened or not. It would be justice for things that happened in the past."
(PS Crystal Gail Mangum is an NCCU student).
So indictments come, and so then does the good stuff.
Bullsh*t stories
Kim Roberts went to a local attorney for advice after things got heated up, and he told her up front that he worked for one of the defendants. He asked her if she thought Mangum was raped, and she said "No." He asked her to sign an affidavit, and she said "Uh uh, I know what side my bread is buttered on." [paraphrased, embellished; might not be what she actually said].
She changed her story, and now says that Mangum was alone and could have been raped.
Interestingly, though, before the story change and because Kim likes rappa Lil Kim, she emailed Lil Kim's publicist with this query [this is an actual quote from the email, released to the media by the publicist]:
"Hi! My name is Kim and I am involved in the Duke Lacrosse scandal. . . . Although I am no celebrity and just an average citizen, I've found myself at the center of one of the biggest stories in the country. I'm worried about letting this opportunity pass me by without making the best of it and was wondering if you had any advice as to how to spin this to my advantage."
Kim admits she is in this for gain. She's worried that once her name and criminal record are public, no one will want to hire her. "Why shouldn't I profit from it?" she asked, according to the AP, who interviewed her. "I didn't ask to be in this position ... I would like to feed my daughter."
OK, as if her credibility wasn't bad enough, she was convicted in 2001 of embezzling $25,000 from her employer (which will be admissible in court to attack her credibility). She violated probation on that one recently, but thankfully DA Nifong has been kind enough to sign off on an order relieving Pahtnah Kim of paying bail-bond fees, because she is "no longer a flight risk."
Quid pro quo.
But there's more! One of the 100% certain defendants, Reade Seligmann, has produced records showing that: between the time stamped 12:03 picture and the time stamped 12:27 picture---the period the assault allegedly occurred---he (or someone using his phone) made at least 8 phone calls between 12:05 and 12:24; at 12:19, a taxi driver confirms picking Seligmann up with a couple of friends and taking them to an ATM, where Seligmann swiped his card, then to a fast food restaurant and then home to his dorm, where his card swiped in at 12:46.
To quote Newsweek: "In other words, it would seem Seligmann must have committed a sex crime in less than two minutes or while he was on the phone."
The other 10000% certain defendant, Collin Finnerty (I love the Dukie names, straight out of The Great Gatsby), may have left the party before the dancing even started, according to his lawyers.
Politics
The DA in this case is running for reelection in less than two weeks. His consituents are 40% black. The city of Durham is not keen on Dukies, whom they view as elitist snobs who make lots of noise and look down their noses at townies. This is DA Nifong's first stab at election---he was appointed after his boss was given a judge job. He's running against two others: one a very popular ADA, who recently got a conviction in a high-profile murder case, and the other a black man. He needs the votes.
Nifong recently went to a NAACP meeting, and he's befriended accuser Crystal Gail Mangum's lawyer. That lawyer has been giving him advice about winning the black vote, taking Nifong to his baptist church, and urging that the DA is a "good prosectutor" and a "good man," and his people should vote for Nifong.
Jesse Jackson is in town and has offered to pay Mangum's tuition.
Meanwhile, the accuser is prepping her civil lawsuit against Duke and the Dukies. You go girl!
