Sunday, July 09, 2006

Duke lacrosse: Police investigation questions (Post No. 1)

(One of a series of posts asking the Durham Police Department questions concerning its investigation of an alleged gang-rape, sodomy, strangulation and kidnapping at a house at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd. on the night of March 13/14.)

In connection with the investigation into the alleged crimes, the DPD has said the three students who leased the N. Buchanan house, all Duke University students and captains of its Men’s lacrosse team, initially cooperated with them.

DPD has said the three students provided its investigating police officers statements concerning the alleged crimes, assisted with a police search for evidence in the house, voluntarily went to Duke Hospital and provided DNA samples, and offered to take lie detector tests.

Question 1: Did DPD read the students their Miranda rights before the three students gave statements, helped with the search of their home, voluntarily submitted to DNA testing and offered to take polygraph tests?

JinC readers: Do you know if this question has been answered? If yes, by whom and where can I verify the answer?

Tomorrow I plan to contact DPD to find out what the department has to say about the question.

I’ll keep you informed.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Golly. You think Nifong might not be talking about that?

heh.

-AC

JWM said...

Anon AC,

There's a lot Nifong no longer seems to want to talk about.

J,

Everything you say may well be true, but it would be nice to hear that from DPD.

Question: When does someone become a "suspect?"

If the police are investigating the accuser’s story, would not the three people who rented the house where the party was held be suspects from moment one?

All 46 were DNAed because Nifong said they were all "suspects," even as some had offered to give him evidence they weren't even at the party.

I raise these matters not to fuss with you but to draw you out and get information.

Sometime today I plan to post an open letter to Duke law faculty asking them to speak out on a host of matters involving the DL case.

Do you have any suggestions for what I might include in the letter/post?

I hope you keep commenting.

Best,

John

JWM said...

Dear J,

It certainly will get me "started" in a few hours when I finish the post to the Law faculty and a Talking with JinC regulars post.

My thought now is to take your second comment and build a post based on it.

I'll likely get back to you late this afternoon here with some questions about the comment (mostly to add specificity to what you propose asking DPD).

After I here back from you , I'll put up a post. How does that sound to you?

Any further background info you provide will be welcome but understand I'll use the conditional "commenter self-identified as" rather than "an investigator asked."

BTW - Are you a JinC regular? Have you been reading the CrimeStoppers posts?

Are you the J who’s commented at the Editor's Blog?

Thank you.

Best,

John

JWM said...

Dear J,

I won't get to your comment tonight but will get to it tomorrow after a 7:30 a.m. dental appointment.

Sorry for the delay.

Best,

John