More details of alleged lacrosse pictures

An article in today's News & Observer includes more details about the alleged Duke lacrosse party pictures and the timeline that they purportedly document:

A sequence of photos from the lacrosse team party where police say a dancer was raped shows the accuser impaired and stumbling, team members drinking beer and the accuser smiling before passing out on the back porch, according to Joseph B. Cheshire V, a lawyer for one of the players....

Cheshire said the time-stamped photos have a 27-minute gap between when the two women stopped dancing and when the accuser was photographed outside the house. During that period, the dancers locked themselves in a bathroom then went outside, he said.

Cheshire declined to provide copies of the photos to The News & Observer and would not identify the photographer. And he has not shared the photos with prosecutors.

...The first sequence of photographs, taken over three and a half minutes, shows two women dancing in negligees in the living room of the house at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd., Cheshire said.

He gave the following description of the photographs: In the first, the accuser is prone on the floor, her face in the carpet.

The other photos show her on the floor, on all fours or on her back. The other dancer is on her feet for all the photos. The lacrosse players line the room, drinking out of beer cans and plastic cups, and one photo shows a player unconscious on the floor, his shorts pulled down and his underwear wet.

"The photographs show the accuser has bruises and cuts on her arms, legs and feet," Cheshire said. "These are visible at the very start of the dance."

The dance lasted less than four minutes, Cheshire said, when the second dancer stopped the performance after an offensive remark from a player.

There are no photos for the next 27 minutes. During this time, Cheshire said, the women locked themselves in a bathroom while one of the captains tried to persuade them to continue the show. Some players accused the women of pocketing the $800 fee and not performing. The dancers then left the house, he said.

Cheshire said the next photographs show the accuser on the back porch, fumbling through her purse. One shows her smiling at the photographer. She is still in her negligee, which does not appear torn or damaged, Cheshire said.

The next photo, six minutes later, shows her passed out on her side on the back porch, he said. Cheshire said the final photograph, taken three minutes later, shows a team captain helping the accuser into the other dancer's car.

"There was no rape in this house," Cheshire said. "It didn't happen."

Until we see the photographs and technical experts assess the accuracy of the timestamps, this is all hearsay, but it is still worth comparing the defense attorney's timeline with the one previously constructed by the N&O.

The total time in the house from the start of the dancing to the dancers leaving is approximately 39 minutes, which roughly corresponds to the witness account of the women entering the house at midnight and leaving between 12:45 and 1 AM. However, the key discrepancy concerns the accuser's return to the house after initially leaving. According to the accuser, she returned to the house and was raped in a bathroom for approximately 30 minutes. But Cheshire's claimed timeline shows a much shorter interval between the accuser leaving the house for the first time and getting in the other dancer's car -- approximately nine minutes.

Again, this is all speculation until these photographs are entered into evidence and verified by evidence, but the most important point is that the pictures do not necessarily exonerate the players. Even if the pictures are accurate, the accuser could have been raped in the six minute interval between leaving the house and passing out on the back porch. We just don't know.

Update 4/10 9:34 AM: According to the AP, another defense attorney named Bill Thomas made two noteworthy claims yesterday.

First, he said the alleged photos were taken by more than one person: "[Thomas] declined to identify the player he represents and said he would not release the photos, taken by at least two cameras, until pending DNA tests are completed."

Second, he claimed that the other dancer cannot provide corroboration of the alleged victim's story. The AP reports that "Thomas said one of the attorneys representing team members had interviewed the other dancer extensively, and she said the alleged victim never told her about a rape."

Comments

[Sharon]

The below recount seems to contradict the neighbor's account of the women running out in the first place, then being persuaded back into the house to finish. At that point he hears the cotton shirt comment. In the account below, they don't leave the house, but lock themselves in a bathroom until they are persuaded to come out and finish the dance, and then they leave for good.

"The dance lasted less than four minutes, Cheshire said, when the second dancer stopped the performance after an offensive remark from a player.

There are no photos for the next 27 minutes. During this time, Cheshire said, the women locked themselves in a bathroom while one of the captains tried to persuade them to continue the show. Some players accused the women of pocketing the $800 fee and not performing. The dancers then left the house, he said."