Brendan Nyhan

From the News and Observer:

Duke University lacrosse players Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty were charged today with first degree forcible rape, first degree sexual offense and kidnapping in connection with a reported rape at a Duke University lacrosse party, according to George Naylor, director of the jail.

Bond was set for each player at $400,000, Naylor said.

The two men emerged from a sheriff’s deputy vehicle and were led, handcuffed, into the magistrates office at 4:54 a.m. today.

Update 4/18 2:30 PM: Nifong’s not done yet:

District attorney Mike Nifong issued a statement today that indicates a continued investigation into a reported rape by three men at a Duke University lacrosse party in March. Two men were arrested this morning.

“It had been my hope to be able to charge all three of the assailants at the same time, but the evidence available to me at this moment does not permit that. The investigation into the identity of the third assailant will continue in the hope that he can also be identified with certainty. It is important that we bring the assailant to justice but also that we lift the cloud of suspicion from those team members who were not involved in the assault,” the statement said.

Other than going to the bathroom, Mike Nifong didn’t make any news today — no indictments were issued:

A Durham grand jury issued a list of indictments this afternoon that did not include members of the Duke University lacrosse team.

District Attorney Mike Nifong had been widely anticipated to seek charges today from the grand jury after an escort service dancer told police more than a month ago that she was sexually assaulted by three men at a lacrosse team party.

It was unclear whether any indictments were issued under seal — a rare move — or whether the case was among 24 carried over to a grand jury session two weeks from today.

Update 4/17 8:13 PM: According to “a source close to the case,” two players were named in a sealed indictment issued by the grand jury today.

No word yet from the grand jury in Durham. In the meantime, the press corps is recording Mike Nifong’s visits to the courthouse bathroom for posterity:

Masses of reporters came to the Durham County Judicial Building today expecting grand jury indictments in the Duke lacrosse rape scandal.

No indictments had been announced by 12:30 p.m., but the anticipation had reporters on a stakeout of District Attorney Mike Nifong that was awkward, if not actually ludicrous.

Just after noon, Nifong emerged from his office and walked straight across the hallway to the bathroom.

Reporters swiftly surrounded the bathroom door, a crowd that included five television cameras, three still photographers, sound men with boom microphones and at least a dozen print reporters.

When the toilet flushed, the group tensed, raised cameras and prepared. Nifong did not emerge with news.

“I no longer get to go anywhere in my community without people knowing who I am,” Nifong said. “I wish you could find me a way to give me my anonymity back.”

By 8 a.m. there were more reporters on the sixth floor of the Durham County Judicial Building than grand jurors.

I was out of town for a Passover celebration with my wife’s family, so I haven’t been following the Duke lacrosse story over the last few days. Today is a big day, however, with observers expecting indictments from the grand jury.

As we wait for further news, here’s a roundup of the latest developments in the case (mostly via Chris Lawrence, who’s been following it closely):

-Police visited a Duke dorm in an attempt to interview lacrosse players. They did not have a warrant. Defense attorneys suggested the visit was illegal.

-The defense allowed the Durham Herald Sun to view its collection of time-stamped photos of the night in question, which the newspaper summarizes in this timeline:

Here is what the pictures show and the time:

11:02 p.m.: Students are hanging out in a living room, apparently waiting for the dancer to arrive. Most have drinking cups in their hands.

Midnight: The dancer is sprawled on her stomach on the floor, as a second dancer stands over her. Students are watching the show but not grabbing or attempting to touch the women. Bruises are clearly visible on the legs and thighs of the alleged victim.

12:01:16: The second dancer is lying on her back on the floor with the alleged rape victim kneeling over her.

12:03:57: The dancers are leaving the room after performing for four minutes. The photo clearly shows that the alleged victim left one of her shoes behind as she departed.

12:10:39: One of the Duke students apparently is passed out on the floor, his head leaning against a sofa, a crushed beer can at his side.

12:30:12: The alleged victim is on the back porch. She has a shoe only on her left foot as she appears to smile and apparently tries to get back inside.

Although the precise time of the alleged rape apparently has not been established, defense lawyers contend it was before this photo was made.

12:31:26: The alleged victim appears to be stumbling down the back steps of the house.

12:37:58: A series of photos beginning at this time shows the woman lying on her left side on the back porch, seemingly passed out or asleep. Pink splotches are on a wrought-iron railing beside her.

Defense lawyers believe the splotches were from undried nail polish the woman applied in a bathroom between 12:10 and 12:30 a.m., during which no time-stamped photos were taken. So, the defense lawyers say, that indicates she was manicuring her nails at the only time a rape could have occurred in the house.

Defense lawyers say the alleged victim was helped to the second dancer’s car. The second dancer then got into a conversation with the lacrosse players, which included hurling racial insults about their manhood, the players told their lawyers.

12:41: The alleged victim is being helped into the car.

12:53: 911 dispatchers get a call about racial slurs being made to two women in the vicinity of the house party.

1:22: Police respond to a 911 call at the Kroger supermarket on Hillsborough Road. According to a communications tape released Thursday, an officer encountered the alleged rape victim there and described her as being "passed out drunk." But the officer said the woman was not in distress and didn’t appear to need medical attention.

A police dispatch log then indicates that the dancer showed up at the Duke emergency room at 2:31 a.m. and entered Duke Hospital at 2:45 a.m.

This timeline is roughly supported by a neighbor’s statement to defense attorneys:

Jason Alexander Bissey, a neighbor to the house where the woman allegedly was raped, provided a written statement to defense attorneys that they shared with The Herald-Sun over the weekend.

Bissey said he saw the “skimpily dressed” accuser leave the house between 12:20 and 12:30 a.m., but then heard her say she was going back inside to retrieve a missing shoe.

According to defense lawyers, Bissey’s observation had to be after the time the woman allegedly was raped in the house, since she never actually re-entered it.

But if she had been raped and sodomized for 30 minutes, as she claimed, would she really have been so worried about a lost shoe that she would dare to face her attackers again, attorneys Ekstrand, Thomas and others are asking.

-The accuser was reportedly described as “just passed-out drunk” by one of the first cops on the scene. However, according to NBC 17, “[a]n unnamed source close to the investigation of a reported rape near the Duke University campus has told NBC 17 News that someone might have drugged the accuser the night she claims three lacrosse members raped her.” This claim is buttressed by a statement from the other dancer, who said that the alleged victim seemed very different after the party:

In an exclusive interview with NBC17, a second woman who also danced at the March 13 party refuted claims made in recent days by defense attorneys that the accuser was intoxicated and injured when she arrived at the party.

“She looked absolutely fine,” the second dancer said, noting that the accuser’s demeanor changed dramatically after they left the party.

“She was definitely a totally different woman than when I first met her. She definitely was under some sort of substance,” the woman said.

-The second dancer admitted that she was the 911 caller who described racial epithets coming from the lacrosse house:

The woman admitted calling 911 to report racial epithets yelled at her and the accuser as they left the party. But she said the details of the incident became jumbled in her call because she was trying to hide the fact that she had been performing at the party.

The woman said her parents don’t know she makes a living as an exotic dancer, and she was afraid the information would be made public if she had been upfront with the 911 dispatcher.

But she said she decided to speak out because defense attorneys have been implying the accuser is lying ever since last week, when DNA tests failed to link any of the lacrosse team members to the accuser.

Update 4/17 8:33 AM EST: Also, as Lawrence points out, a NBC 17 report states that “defense attorneys also noted that three people at the party aren’t on the lacrosse team, and none of them have submitted DNA samples to authorities for testing.”

Today’s Washington Post features a disturbing article on how developers are sorting people into developments by “values.” Here’s the most dystopic passage:

Before a shovel ever hit the dirt at Ladera, Warrick sent out more than 20,000 surveys to people who had called after reading billboards advertising the community or who had been shopping for a new house in Orange County.

He asked them to rate how important certain things were to them — "making it big" or "finding your purpose in life." He asked people whether "extremists and radicals should be banned from running for public office" or whether they "like to experience exotic people and places."

To a large extent, some questions were aimed at finding out whether people would pay for eco-friendly features, and others were aimed at what Warrick calls "neighboring." People were asked whether it was important that they know their neighbors, or have organized activities, or privacy, for instance.

When the responses came back, they were sorted, and four psychographic profiles emerged.

As it turns out, there were lots of status-conscious "Winners" in Orange County, people who tended to go for the glitziest, most expensive homes in Covenant Hills. And there were a fair number of "Winners with Heart," a hybrid group of status-conscious people with a spiritual side.

There were the religiously oriented "Traditionalists," who, it was assumed, would prefer the more classic architecture there, and more family-oriented activities, such as the annual Easter egg hunt.

On the other hand, the "Cultural Creatives" tended to be more liberal-minded, environmentally oriented and "less into conspicuous consumption," Warrick said, and Terramor was built for them.

"Their houses might have a courtyard that conceals the front door, and it’s kind of cozy and nest-like," he explained. "The materials might be just as expensive as what the Winner would want, but more understated."

The fact that he’s asking whether “extremists and radicals should be banned from running for public office” as a “values” question tells you all you need to know about this practice. Here’s some sample ad text that I’ll offer to Warrick free of charge:

Do you want to place illegal restrictions on the ability of your fellow citizens for public office? Well, so do we! Move to Enclave Developments and we’ll make sure you never have to talk to anyone who disagrees with you! And don’t worry, there won’t be any “extremists” or “radicals” on the board of the neighborhood association!

National Review does not live within the reality-based community — check out the parenthetical at the end of their subscription-only editorial on immigration:

We are constantly told that the American economy depends on the arrival of more than a million new low-skilled workers every year — that they fill “jobs Americans won’t do.” Thus we must implement a guest-worker program and refrain from enforcing our immigration laws. Yet no other economy in the world has required such large-scale immigration to avoid collapse. Almost every job category in America is already filled mostly by native-born Americans. Curbing illegal immigration, and curbing low-skilled legal immigration for that matter, would cause some industries to raise wages, others to substitute machines for people, and still others to move some work abroad. Markets would clear. Our GDP would do fine. Slightly higher wages for America’s high-school drop-outs would not be the worst thing in the world. (It’s a sad day when Paul Krugman has a clearer view of the economics of an issue than the editors of the Wall Street Journal.)

If “[i]t’s a sad day when Paul Krugman has a clearer view of the economics of an issue than the editors of the Wall Street Journal,” then the people at NR must be sad 365 times per year. Let’s see: Paul Krugman, a John Bates Clark medal winner, or the editors of the Wall Street Journal, who frequently claim that tax cuts increase revenue. Regardless of your politics, there’s just no discussion here.

(PS In the same issue, the editors refer to Tom DeLay as “a man of principle.”)

Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) makes his high school English teacher weep while defending Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on CNN’s “Late Edition” today:

And the fact that we’re in a — that this is a tough time and a tough point in this progress toward a free Iraq doesn’t mean that you change horses because you’re in a tough ball game and there’s lots of difficulties.

We shouldn’t throw the long bomb with a full count in the home stretch… Yeah.

Talk about begging the question:

Running through the University of Georgia campus as a ninja can elicit a prompt response from authorities, a UGA sophomore learned.

Federal Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearm agents, on campus for a community training project, detained Jeremiah Ransom of Macon Tuesday as a “suspicious individual” when they spotted a masked figure darting near the Georgia Center.

Ransom told The Red & Black student newspaper that he had left a Wesley Foundation pirate vs. ninja event when he was snared by agents with guns drawn.

“[A] Wesley Foundation pirate vs. ninja event”? Huh?

Disturbing but not surprising:

On May 29, 2003, 50 days after the fall of Baghdad, President Bush proclaimed a fresh victory for his administration in Iraq: Two small trailers captured by U.S. and Kurdish troops had turned out to be long-sought mobile “biological laboratories.” He declared, “We have found the weapons of mass destruction.

“The claim, repeated by top administration officials for months afterward, was hailed at the time as a vindication of the decision to go to war. But even as Bush spoke, U.S. intelligence officials possessed powerful evidence that it was not true.

A secret fact-finding mission to Iraq — not made public until now — had already concluded that the trailers had nothing to do with biological weapons. Leaders of the Pentagon-sponsored mission transmitted their unanimous findings to Washington in a field report on May 27, 2003, two days before the president’s statement.

The three-page field report and a 122-page final report three weeks later were stamped “secret” and shelved. Meanwhile, for nearly a year, administration and intelligence officials continued to publicly assert that the trailers were weapons factories.

The authors of the reports were nine U.S. and British civilian experts — scientists and engineers with extensive experience in all the technical fields involved in making bioweapons — who were dispatched to Baghdad by the Defense Intelligence Agency for an analysis of the trailers. Their actions and findings were described to a Washington Post reporter in interviews with six government officials and weapons experts who participated in the mission or had direct knowledge of it.

We told you so. (Via Atrios.)

Wow:

DNA testing failed to connect any members of the Duke University lacrosse team to the alleged rape of a stripper, attorneys for the athletes said Monday.

Citing DNA test results delivered by the state crime lab to police and prosecutors a few hours earlier, the attorneys said the test results prove their clients did not sexually assault and beat a stripper hired to perform at a March 13 team party.

No charges have been filed in the case.

“No DNA material from any young man was present on the body of this complaining woman,” said defense attorney Wade Smith.

This doesn’t prove anything (they could have used condoms), but it doesn’t look good. Mike Nifong (the DA) is going to have to put up or shut up very soon…

Update 4/10 9:10 PM: Nifong says he’ll continue to investigate:

[Nifong] did not dispute the defense lawyers’ account of the test results and said Monday evening that his faith in the accuser’s account was undeterred.

“I believe a sexual assault took place,” he said.

He said he would continue his investigation, and said most rape cases do not depend on DNA testing.

“I’m not saying it’s over,” he said. “If that’s what they expect, they will be sadly disappointed.”

Update 4/10 10:07 PM: In comments, hcq and phil point out that the condom theory appears to be undermined as well:

Sorry, the condom argument doesn’t work. Read the rest of the story:

[A]uthorities took DNA samples from all over the alleged victim’s body, including under her fingernails, and from her possessions, such as her cell phone and her clothes.

“They swabbed about every place they could possibly swab from her, in which there could be any DNA,” he said.

No. DNA. Anywhere. In other words, if “a sexual assault did take place,” it occurred without any of these guys even touching her.

Posted by: hcq | April 10, 2006 at 09:26 PM

Of equal (or more) significance than the absence of the player’s DNA was, if the words from one of the players’ attorneys are to be trusted, the absence of *any* DNA whatsoever.

Cheshire said even if the alleged attackers used a condom, it’s likely there would have been some DNA evidence found suggesting an assault took place. He said in this case, the report states there was no DNA on her to indicate that she had sex of any type recently.”

Even more troubling, the next paragraph, also taken on the attorney’s word, says there was none of the residue from a condom, either.

“The experts will tell you that if there was a condom used they would still be able to pick up DNA, latex, lubricant and all other types of things to show that — and that’s not here,” Cheshire said.”

So from the way this attorney characterizes the report, it not only fails to implicate the lacrosse players, it suggests that there’s no discernible physical evidence for tracing the alleged attack to some other person. Ought we to start wondering about the competence of whoever did the initial rape examination?

Posted by: phil | April 10, 2006 at 09:36 PM

So what are the odds that Nifong will back away from this case given that he’s up for reelection in a month?

Update 4/11 6:38 AM: The Herald Sun’s article on the test results today includes a vague suggestion that further results may be forthcoming from tests now being performed at a second lab:

Meanwhile, a lawyer close to the case, who declined to be identified, said the DNA tests returned Monday afternoon from the State Bureau of Investigation crime lab were not all-inclusive. Another lab also is analyzing the DNA samples and those results are not available yet, the lawyer said.

Update 4/11 3:00 PM: More from Nifong:

The district attorney said at an N.C. Central University forum today that there are additional DNA tests to be done in the investigation of a reported rape at a party attended by Duke University lacrosse team players.

One day after lawyers representing the team’s players held a press conference to say state DNA testing exonerates the players and helps prove that no rape occurred, District Attorney Mike Nifong said at the forum that all of the DNA tests are not in and that the woman who said she was raped in a bathroom by three men can identify her attackers.