Second house searched in team-linked rape case
By BriAnne Dopart and John Stevenson, The Herald-Sun
March 29, 2006 12:59 am
DURHAM -- District Attorney Mike Nifong said Tuesday that police have searched a second house in connection with the Duke lacrosse case, and that additional searches "quite likely" would follow.
Nifong said the latest search was at a house occupied by two members of the Duke lacrosse team.
He declined to say what officers were looking for. Those details, along with an inventory of any evidence that was seized, will be outlined in the search warrant and accompanying paperwork, which by law must be returned to the county Magistrate's Office by today.
Court documents show police also searched a car, although the records suggest that no evidence was seized.
No charges have been filed in the case.
Meanwhile, new details of the alleged rape have emerged from the court order used to obtain DNA samples from 46 lacrosse players last week.
According to the Police Department's application for the order, medical records gave credence to the victim's allegations.
The records "revealed the victim had signs, symptoms and injuries consistent with being raped and sexually assaulted vaginally and anally," according to the document.
A forensic sexual assault nurse conducted the evaluation, the document said, and stated that the victim's "injuries and her behavior were consistent with a traumatic experience."
Also, the city released a recording Tuesday of a call an unidentified woman made to 911 dispatchers the night of the alleged rape in which she claimed to have been walking outside the house where the lacrosse party was held. The woman reported that a man standing in front of the wall near 610 N. Buchanan Blvd. called her and a black friend "niggers" as they walked past the residence.
The woman told the dispatcher that she "isn't hurt or anything," but that she simply wanted to report the incident. The dispatcher gave no indication that she would send a police cruiser to the area.
The alleged rape victim is black and told police that the lacrosse players at the party, all of whom were white, also used racial slurs.
Police spokeswoman Kammie Michael did not answer questions about the time between the woman's call and the call reporting the alleged rape, which came from a security guard at the Kroger on Hillsborough Road.
Michael said the alleged rape victim was not the same woman who called about the racial slur. But Michael did not respond to a question asking whether the woman who called about the racial slur was the woman who accompanied the alleged rape victim to the party.
When the Kroger security guard called police, she told the dispatcher that the alleged victim was sitting in a car and was "intoxicated, drunk or something." The guard said the woman wouldn't get out of the car.
The guard told the dispatcher that the owner of the car was standing with her at the customer service station.
Michael did not answer a question asking whether the alleged rape victim was intoxicated.
But in an interview Tuesday night, the guard, Angel Altmon, said that once she went to the car and saw the woman, she no longer thought she was intoxicated. In particular, there was no odor of alcohol, Altmon said.
"Somebody must have slipped her something, because she wasn't drunk," Altmon said. "If she was drunk I would have smelled something."
Altmon said she didn't see any bruises on the woman, although it was dark. She said the woman was wearing just one high-heeled shoe and see-through lingerie.
Altmon also said the driver of the car told her she didn't go to the party with the alleged victim. The driver said she was driving near the party scene when she saw the alleged victim walking outside. "She said she saw a whole lot of Duke guys hollering at her" and using racial slurs, Altmon said. She said the driver said she stopped to pick up the woman and brought her to the Kroger to call police.
"I'll be praying for her," Altmon said.
According to Michael, police interviewed three men the same day authorities obtained a search warrant for 610 N. Buchanan Blvd.
Although Michael said she didn't know the identity of the men, the application for the order to obtain DNA samples makes reference to the three residents of 610 N. Buchanan Blvd. The residents told police that every person who attended the party was a Duke lacrosse player. According to the three residents, all but five of the players tested for DNA were at the party.
The alleged gang rape happened after the victim was hired as an exotic dancer for the lacrosse team party. According to Duke officials, team members have acknowledged hiring the dancer and that there was underage drinking by team members at the party.
According to the court documents, one man at the party brandished a broom stick and threatened to "shove this up you" while the victim was dancing.
At that point, the victim and a fellow dancer decided to leave, but were persuaded to go back into the house, the documents say.
Then, the documents allege, three men raped and sexually assaulted the victim anally, vaginally and orally for some 30 minutes in a bathroom.
Consistent with the woman's version of events, four red polished fingernails were recovered inside the residence. She claimed they broke off as she clawed at one of the suspects "while being strangled," the court documents say.
In addition, the documents allege that Duke lacrosse captain Daniel Flannery "admitted using an alias to make the reservation" for the dancers.
However, the lacrosse players told the victim they were members of the Duke baseball and track teams "to hide the true identity of their sports affiliation," according to the court documents.
DNA samples from the lacrosse players arrived at the State Bureau of Investigation laboratory in Raleigh on Monday afternoon, and it is expected that test results will be available next week.
Depending on the results, it is possible that charges might be lodged against partygoers other than those who actually committed the alleged rape, Nifong said Tuesday. If so, such charges likely would be aiding and abetting the sexual assault, according to Nifong, who is handling the case personally.
"Generally speaking, mere presence at a crime scene is not enough to charge someone," Nifong said.
But he added that charges would be possible if any bystanders encouraged the alleged rapists or condoned their conduct.
Links related to this article:
First 911 call:
http://www.heraldsun.com/media/audio/Firstcall.mp3
Second 911 call:
http://www.heraldsun.com/media/audio/Secondcall.mp3
URL for this article:
http://www.herald-sun.com/durham/4-718133.html
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