Posted on Thu, Jun. 08, 2006
Document in Duke case: Dancer lacked signs of physical trauma
BY DAVID PERLMUTT
Charlotte Observer
Doctors and nurses who examined an exotic dancer hours after she reported being raped by three Duke University lacrosse players found vaginal swelling but no other signs of physical trauma, according to court documents filed Thursday.
The report from a nurse, training to be a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner at Duke Medical Center, said she found swelling or redness. The only other signs of trauma were two minor cuts, defense lawyers said in sworn statements.
The statements represent the first details of what doctors and nurses found when they examined the dancer. The examination came hours after the woman told police she was dragged into a bathroom by three players at a team party in mid-March and was raped, sodomized and choked for 30 minutes.
The complete medical report of the examination was included in the filing, but sealed. A few excerpts were made public.
The lawyers say that lead Durham police investigator Benjamin Himan withheld medical evidence and information from interviews that could have cast doubt on the woman's story.
Himan submitted a probable cause affidavit that medical evidence showed the victim had physical signs consistent with being raped. The affidavit was used a week after the incident to persuade a judge to order DNA samples from 46 players and allow photographs to be taken of their torsos.
The sexual assault nurse's report "contains no opinion or conclusion that (the woman) had signs, symptoms and injuries consistent with being raped and sexually assaulted," according to the filing. It's not clear whether sexual assault nurses are required or expected to give those opinions, but they can.
The statements were filed by lawyers Kirk Osborn of Chapel Hill and Ernest Conner of Greenville, who represent Reade Seligmann, one of three players indicted in the case.
Seligmann and teammates David Evans and Collin Finnerty have all proclaimed their innocence.
The lawyers contend that Himan, in a March 20 statement, reported the woman told him she'd been hit, kicked and strangled. But he "omitted" findings by a doctor who examined the woman that she had no "neck, back, chest or abdominal tenderness."
Himan, they say, also left out statements from the nurse that the woman told her she wasn't choked and that no "condoms, fingers or foreign objects were used the during the alleged sexual attack."
Doctors, the defense lawyers contend, reported the woman complained of a "vaginal assault," but no other type of assault. The nurse reported that the woman's head, neck, nose, throat, mouth, chest, breasts and "upper and lower extremities" were normal, despite the woman's complaints of tenderness over her body, the statement said.
Sexual assault nurses can often determine whether sex occurred, but establishing whether a woman was raped is difficult.
Theresa George, coordinator of Presbyterian Hospital's Forensic Nurse Examiner Program, said there's greater potential for injury with a rape than with consensual sex. However, she said, it's often impossible to tell just from physical findings whether the sex was consensual.
Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong has said repeatedly he is pursuing the case because the medical evidence is consistent with a rape.
Nifong and Himan couldn't be reached Thursday.
The filings point out that the woman changed her story to police and hospital workers several times: After initially telling police she had been raped, she recanted, saying that no one forced her to have sex. She later told the nurse she had been raped.
Defense lawyers also accuse Himan of withholding information about an encounter the woman said she had before going to the lacrosse party.
It involved a couple in a hotel room, and she told Himan she used a vibrator. That, the statement said, "clearly could have caused signs or symptoms of vaginal penetration."
Osborn declined to comment on the documents. His filings also included notes from an interview Himan conducted with Roberts, the other dancer. Roberts told him she thought the woman's allegations were "a crock."
She also told Himan she was with the woman for all but five minutes that night, the statement said.
However, in interviews with media outlets, Roberts has changed her story, saying she initially doubted the woman's story, but now believes something happened to the woman in the house.
Roberts' earlier statement to Himan didn't make it into his affidavit, the lawyers contend.
"These discovery materials reveal that the lead investigator possessed relevant impeaching information ... and this information was intentionally, deliberately and/or recklessly omitted from the investigator's probable cause affidavit," the documents said.
https://registration.mercurynews.com/reg/login.do?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mercurynews.com%3A80%2Fmld%2Fmercurynews%2Fsports%2F14774042.htm
I know there are good, hard working and decent LEO's out there. However, I do not trust any of them. When I hear LEO's explain why they treat people the way they do on traffic stops or other official contacts, "its because we dont know if they are armed", "officer safety". Well, that goes both ways. If contact is initiated with me by an LEO, how do I know if its a good LEO, or one of the bad ones? I dont. So, Its easier not to trust any of them, until proven otherwise.
Document in Duke case: Dancer lacked signs of physical trauma
BY DAVID PERLMUTT
Charlotte Observer
Doctors and nurses who examined an exotic dancer hours after she reported being raped by three Duke University lacrosse players found vaginal swelling but no other signs of physical trauma, according to court documents filed Thursday.
The report from a nurse, training to be a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner at Duke Medical Center, said she found swelling or redness. The only other signs of trauma were two minor cuts, defense lawyers said in sworn statements.
The statements represent the first details of what doctors and nurses found when they examined the dancer. The examination came hours after the woman told police she was dragged into a bathroom by three players at a team party in mid-March and was raped, sodomized and choked for 30 minutes.
The complete medical report of the examination was included in the filing, but sealed. A few excerpts were made public.
The lawyers say that lead Durham police investigator Benjamin Himan withheld medical evidence and information from interviews that could have cast doubt on the woman's story.
Himan submitted a probable cause affidavit that medical evidence showed the victim had physical signs consistent with being raped. The affidavit was used a week after the incident to persuade a judge to order DNA samples from 46 players and allow photographs to be taken of their torsos.
The sexual assault nurse's report "contains no opinion or conclusion that (the woman) had signs, symptoms and injuries consistent with being raped and sexually assaulted," according to the filing. It's not clear whether sexual assault nurses are required or expected to give those opinions, but they can.
The statements were filed by lawyers Kirk Osborn of Chapel Hill and Ernest Conner of Greenville, who represent Reade Seligmann, one of three players indicted in the case.
Seligmann and teammates David Evans and Collin Finnerty have all proclaimed their innocence.
The lawyers contend that Himan, in a March 20 statement, reported the woman told him she'd been hit, kicked and strangled. But he "omitted" findings by a doctor who examined the woman that she had no "neck, back, chest or abdominal tenderness."
Himan, they say, also left out statements from the nurse that the woman told her she wasn't choked and that no "condoms, fingers or foreign objects were used the during the alleged sexual attack."
Doctors, the defense lawyers contend, reported the woman complained of a "vaginal assault," but no other type of assault. The nurse reported that the woman's head, neck, nose, throat, mouth, chest, breasts and "upper and lower extremities" were normal, despite the woman's complaints of tenderness over her body, the statement said.
Sexual assault nurses can often determine whether sex occurred, but establishing whether a woman was raped is difficult.
Theresa George, coordinator of Presbyterian Hospital's Forensic Nurse Examiner Program, said there's greater potential for injury with a rape than with consensual sex. However, she said, it's often impossible to tell just from physical findings whether the sex was consensual.
Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong has said repeatedly he is pursuing the case because the medical evidence is consistent with a rape.
Nifong and Himan couldn't be reached Thursday.
The filings point out that the woman changed her story to police and hospital workers several times: After initially telling police she had been raped, she recanted, saying that no one forced her to have sex. She later told the nurse she had been raped.
Defense lawyers also accuse Himan of withholding information about an encounter the woman said she had before going to the lacrosse party.
It involved a couple in a hotel room, and she told Himan she used a vibrator. That, the statement said, "clearly could have caused signs or symptoms of vaginal penetration."
Osborn declined to comment on the documents. His filings also included notes from an interview Himan conducted with Roberts, the other dancer. Roberts told him she thought the woman's allegations were "a crock."
She also told Himan she was with the woman for all but five minutes that night, the statement said.
However, in interviews with media outlets, Roberts has changed her story, saying she initially doubted the woman's story, but now believes something happened to the woman in the house.
Roberts' earlier statement to Himan didn't make it into his affidavit, the lawyers contend.
"These discovery materials reveal that the lead investigator possessed relevant impeaching information ... and this information was intentionally, deliberately and/or recklessly omitted from the investigator's probable cause affidavit," the documents said.
https://registration.mercurynews.com/reg/login.do?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mercurynews.com%3A80%2Fmld%2Fmercurynews%2Fsports%2F14774042.htm
I know there are good, hard working and decent LEO's out there. However, I do not trust any of them. When I hear LEO's explain why they treat people the way they do on traffic stops or other official contacts, "its because we dont know if they are armed", "officer safety". Well, that goes both ways. If contact is initiated with me by an LEO, how do I know if its a good LEO, or one of the bad ones? I dont. So, Its easier not to trust any of them, until proven otherwise.
