While I’m at a conference ignoring the Duke lacrosse case, Chris Lawrence is back home and on the ball. The big news since I left is that questions have been raised about key aspects of the case for both sides.
First, the identification of the two suspects was made using a suspect technique in which the accuser only saw pictures of lacrosse players, not similar-looking “filler” pictures:
A written report of the April 4 identification was turned over to defense attorneys Friday, and sources told NBC17 that the attorneys are considering asking a judge to suppress the evidence, claiming it was improperly conducted.
To obtain the identification, Durham police showed the woman photos of the 46 lacrosse team members one at a time, sources said. The woman said she was 100 percent certain that Finnerty and Seligmann were involved and 90 percent certain that a third player was involved.Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong said Tuesday that he is still collecting evidence in the case and hopes to indict a third player soon.
No other photos were shown to the woman, sources said, and the defense attorneys maintain that police should have included photos of other young, white men in the photo array to make the identifications legitimate.
…U.S. Department of Justice guidelines on using photo identifications call for using a photo array that includes only one suspect and at least five “fillers,” or other people who generally fit the witness’ description of the perpetrator, for each array.
Defense attorneys also noted that two people at the party who aren’t on the lacrosse team weren’t included in the photos shown to the woman. Those two people also have never submitted DNA samples to authorities for testing, attorneys said.
On the other hand, the cab driver who corroborates Seligmann’s partial alibi made a statement that doesn’t line up with other accounts of the evening:
New questions have been raised surrounding when a taxicab driver said he was called to the house where an exotic dancer claims she was raped by members of the Duke University lacrosse team.
Moez Mostafa, the driver, is a key alibi witness for one of two men arrested in the alleged incident.
Mostafa said he arrived in his cab at 610 North Buchanan Blvd. at about 1 a.m.. on March 14. He said the early-morning pickup was for four young men, in front of the house where a woman hired to dance claimed she was raped a short time earlier.
In an interview with MSNBC’s Rita Cosby, Mostafa described the scene as he pulled up in his cab at 1 a.m.
“A bunch of boys outside the house,” Mostafa said. “Close to 20.”
According to Durham police records, a call was placed to 911 at 12:53 a.m., stating that men from the house were hurling racial slurs. Police logs indicate that two squad cars responded, the first arriving at 12:55 a.m. The officers left about 11 minutes later and reported that the house and the surrounding grounds appeared empty — a far cry from the close to 20 men Mostafa said he saw, NBC 17 reported.
This week, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann were arrested and charged with the rape. Defense attorneys said both men have alibis. Seligmann’s relies heavily on Mostafa, who said he picked up the Duke sophomore at 12:19 a.m. and drove him around for close to 25 minutes before dropping him off at his residence hall. The time spent in the cab was around the time the alleged rape is believed to have taken place.
The timeline inconsistencies could raise questions about that account, NBC 17 reported.
This case is just a mess. When people ask me what I think about it, I have to say honestly that I have no idea. It’s just a jumble of conflicting factual claims and accounts.