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Second Lacrosse Party Dancer Makes Obscene Gesture In Court
POSTED: 5:58 pm EDT May 30, 2006
UPDATED: 10:37 pm EDT May 30, 2006
DURHAM, N.C. -- A second exotic dancer who performed at a March 13 Duke University lacrosse team party where a woman says she was raped and assaulted by three athletes made an obscene gesture at a television camera during court proceedings on Tuesday.
When Kim Roberts noticed WRAL's camera in the courtroom, she made the gesture and then stuck out her tongue.
Roberts, 31, was in court for a probation hearing on a previous embezzlement charge. She was arrested on March 22 -- eight days after the lacrosse party -- on a probation violation from a 2001 conviction for embezzling $25,000 from a photo-finishing company in Durham where she was a payroll specialist, according to court documents.
In a previous interview, Roberts said she does not know if an attack actually happened, but said she has "to wonder about their character," referring to the suspects in the case.
"I was not in the bathroom when it happened, so I can't say a rape occurred -- and I never will," Roberts told The Associated Press in April.
Defense attorneys claim Roberts at first told a member of the defense team that she did not believe the accuser's allegations. They say she has changed her story to gain favorable treatment in a criminal case against her.
They note she also e-mailed a New York public relations firm, asking in her letter for advice on "how to spin this to my advantage." The firm later said it would not be representing Roberts.
Roberts' testimony could be vital during any trial of the three suspects, sophomores Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty and Duke graduate David Evans, who were indicted on charges of first-degree rape, sexual offense and kidnapping.
Roberts refused to talk with WRAL on Tuesday.
It's A Crock
Two weeks ago when I quoted Dan Abrams as saying "Drop the charges" on the Duke rape debacle, I thought the prosecution case could not get any weaker.
I was wrong - it could get a lot weaker:
New court filings in the Duke lacrosse rape case suggest that a second exotic dancer initially told Durham police that the alleged victim's rape claim could not be true and that it was "a crock." According to the 32-page motion filed on Wednesday by defense attorney Kirk Osborn, the second dancer, Kim Roberts, told police that she was with the alleged victim the entire time at the March 13 party except for a period of less than five minutes.Nwo I understand that this is a defense motion and they have cherry-picked the most favorable bits of the evidence disclosed to them.
But in Durham police search warrants made public earlier this year, the alleged victim told police she had been raped, beaten and sodomized for a 30-minute period by three Duke lacrosse players in a bathroom. Roberts also initially told police, according to the motion, that the alleged victim never went back in to the house at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd., even though authorities have said in court documents that the two left the party and later returned at the urging of some of the partygoers.
Instead, the motion says, Roberts -- also identified as Kim Pittman -- locked the alleged victim in Roberts' Honda Accord while she proceeded to the back of the house to look for some of the accuser's personal belongings. Osborn, who filed the motion on behalf of 20-year-old Reade Seligmann, also argues that investigators deliberately omitted information as they moved forward with the case.
Wednesday's motion also claims that the initial examination performed on the alleged victim did not reach a conclusion as to whether she was raped and that the only trace of physical trauma included a scratch on the alleged victim's knee and heel. Osborn writes that the alleged victim said she was hit, kicked and strangled, but that the investigator in the case, Benjamin Himan, omitted that "the examining physician at 3:14 a.m. [on March 14] found no neck, back, chest or abdominal tenderness."
He also writes that the investigator's probable cause affidavit omitted that the sexual assault examination found that "no condoms, fingers or foreign objects were used during the alleged sexual assault." The motion also states that the nurse who did the examination was not technically certified as a sexual-assault nurse, but that she was still "in training."
...The motion also states that prior to going to the lacrosse player's party that the accuser "had a function at a hotel room with a couple where she performed using a [sexual device], which clearly could have caused signs or symptoms of vaginal penetration."
...In an April interview with The Associated Press, Roberts, 31, said she does not know if an attack actually happened, but said she has "to wonder about their character," referring to the suspects in the case.
"I was not in the bathroom when it happened, so I can't say a rape occurred -- and I never will," she said.
However, given his already weak case, I can't begin to imagine how the DA hopes to skate past all this at trial. Well, there isn't going to be a trial, so why wonder.
ABC News is stronger on the objective of the defense filing:
Defense attorneys in the Duke rape investigation are aiming to cut the heart out of the prosecution's case they want the alleged victim's photo lineup identification of three lacrosse players thrown out of court.
In motions filed Thursday, defense lawyer Kirk Osborn argued that Durham police withheld key facts contradicting the alleged victim's account when they obtained a court order to photograph and take DNA samples from the Duke lacrosse team members.
If that evidence is tossed, well, hard luck for DA Nifong. But this filing also works well in the court of public opinion - it will be interesting to see the prosecution response.
It is also encouraging to see that the NY Times has regained interest in this case.
Posted by Tom Maguire on June 08, 2006
