60 minutes, tonight: Duke students defend themselves against rape charges

[pnwmom]

The second dancer is also interviewed, and denies (with a laugh) the accuser's account of how the "rape" supposedly occurred.

http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/60minutes/main3415.shtml

[CatWoman]

1. to hell with that

I want to see the Kuo interview :)

[pnwmom]

5. He has been interviewed -- I know I saw him on TV. Was it MSNBC?

Hopefully, there will be more and his book will sell MILLIONS of copies!

[genie_weenie]

2. I wouldn't waste time posting anything more about Duke

most here made up their minds back in March and just used the GD for their personal flame wars and to point out how evil their hated groups are...

[pnwmom]

4. Ed Bradley said his biggest suprise was that he thought

in America there was supposed to be a presumption of innocence. But that didn't happen in this case.

As long as these students are still facing trial, the issue is still important, IMO. This type of situation -- an errant prosecutor seeing a chance to use a case for political reasons -- could have happened to any of us.

[marshall]

6. These issues are important to all of us

I don't understand those who seem to be bored with the case, or don't want others to discuss it. This is a DA gone wild, and that could happen in any community in the country that is unlucky enough to have such a person in power.

[jazzjunkysue]

8. The accuser was out dancing 2 weeks after the "attack." Wow.

She had been in jail before, and there were drug issues. She was a good 10+ years older than the college boys and apparently goes out to "dance" without any kind of body guard.

Now, of course, if she could prove her case, I'd like to see the appropriate punishment. But the evidence is so flimsy, and her own actions are so irresponsible, that it looks like a stalemate, regardless of the exact events of the evening.

No one's going to pay her $400/hour to ring up burgers, you know? She took on a really dangerous job, getting drunken students horny, took off her clothes, and then wants everyone to believe her, without a shred of reliable evidence.

Whether or not they assaulted her, she couldn't have been to traumatised, if she went right out and did it again 2 weeks later.

This is not the same as a bunch of strange men jumping and abducting an innocent woman off the street. It's really not, and that's why people like me aren't seeing it as totally the boy's fault. She helped the events unfold, whatever they were. She's not totally innocent. If she can't prove her case, she takes some of the blame for that, and should get out of the "business."

[marshall]

10. It is fishy

I have heard that the DA is probably just waiting for the accuser to refuse to cooperate, then he can drop the case and his hands are clean--it's all her fault.

I don't know what cause her to make the initial accusation, other than the humiliation of having the party boys using racial epithets against her. But I think she has been shamlessly used by the DA and she should not be made to pay the price for his wrongs.

[pnwmom]

11. One reason she may have made the charge

is that the police were about to take her to an alcohol detox center. She was on probation for serious charges (assaulting a policeman with a vehicle she stole) and that would have put her in violation of her probation. When she was at the alcohol center, someone asked her if she had been raped. Saying yes meant that she was removed from the alcohol center and sent to a hospital instead.

[Nikia]

13. If she is telling the truth, the rape is not her fault

A rape is never the woman's fault. There is no excuse to rape.
I don't know whether the rape happened or not, but just because she is dancing again doesn't mean that it didn't happen. Everyone reacts differently and it is not unheard of for sex workers to go back to work after a rape just as it is not unheard of for an industrial worker to go back to work after losing body parts or other severe injuries at work.

[jazzjunkysue]

15. If she goes back, then the next time it is her fault. Get a real job.

Don't go taking your clothes off for drunken college boys in a private house if you don't want to be jumped.

It's called common sense.

[marshall]

14. next week?

I read somewhere that they are planning a followup next week that will be even more damaging to Nifong. What can they do that is more damning?

[johnaries]

9. Well, this show changed my mind.

I'll admit that I didn't follow the story that closely, but I thought they were guilty. After watching this, I still think the kids were spoiled, rich brats - but I don't think they were rapists.

[pnwmom]

12. I had the same initial reaction you did, based on the same

kind of feelings about spoiled kids. But I changed my mind some time ago, based on reading the documents that are out there. It's scary to think about how easily your life could come tumbling down in the face of false charges. What if their parents weren't able to afford these monstrous attorney bills (which are estimated to run over a million dollars, if this goes to trial)?

One of those students, by the way, Reade Seligmann, sounds like a choirboy -- not a spoiled kid at all. His high school teachers and principal adored him. He's the one that has that airtight alibi with the paper trail.

[Broadslidin]

3. Also: The Bush Cabol Views The Christain Evangelicals as "Nuts".....!!!!

:yoiks:

[Broadslidin]

7. Bush Co. Views Pat Robertson as (60 Minutes Quote) "Insane"......!!

George W. Bush considers the evangelicals as :crazy:

[hiaasenrocks]

16. The only question is: Which stripper is lying?

This is going to come down to these two strippers and who is more believable. The case shouldn't even go forward at this point.