Unfortunately, the police have not released a transcript of their interview with the victim. As of this writing they haven't even released her name. Therefore, we do not have her statement to analyze and see exactly what she was saying. They did release a transcript of the photo line up that was given to her. Using a Power Point slide show, the police showed her 46 photos. They asked her to state whether or not she recognized the person in the photo. There were 17 photos that she recognized from the night in question. She said that four of these men "assaulted" her. Here is how she described these four men.
PHOTO #4
Q. "Did you recognize that person?"
A. "He looked like xxxx but I'm not sure."
Q. "Who is xxxx?"
A. "One of the guys that assaulted me."
Q. "One of the guys that assaulted you? Ok."
A. "Um hum."
PHOTO #5
A. "He looks like one of the guys who assaulted me sort."
Q. "Ok. How um, how sure of it are you on this image?"
A. "He looks just like him without the mustache."
Q. "Ok, so the person had a mustache?"
A. "Yes."
Q. "Percentage wise, what is the likelihood this is one of the gentlemen who assaulted you?"
A. "About 90%."
PHOTO #7
A. "He looks like one of they guys who assaulted me."
Q. "How sure of that are you?"
A. "100%"
Q. "You're 100% sure. Ok.
A. "Yes."
Q. "How did he assault you? Which one was he?"
A. "He was the one standing in front of me. Um, that made me perform oral sex on him."
Q. "What else did he do?"
A. "That was it."
PHOTO #40
A. "He is the guy who assaulted me."
Q. "What did he do?"
A. "He put his penis in my anus and my vagina."
Q. "Was he the first or second one to do that?"
A. "The second one."
Q. "Is he the one that strangled you or not?"
A. "No."
PHOTO #46
Q. "Do you recognize him?"
A. "No."
Q. "Do you need some tissues? I can see you're crying."
A. "No, I'm fine."
Q. "Um, you said you don't recognize him. And getting back one slide to the gentleman who put his penis in your anus. How sure of that are you?"
A. "100%."
The Analysis
PHOTO #4
Q. "Did you recognize that person?"
A. "He looked like xxxx but I'm not sure."
Twice she tells us that she cannot positively identify the man in photo #4 when she states, "He looked like" and "I'm not sure."
PHOTO #5
A. "He looks like one of the guys who assaulted me sort."
Q. "Ok. How um, how sure of it are you on this image?"
A. "He looks just like him without the mustache."
Q. "Ok, so the person had a mustache?"
A. "Yes."
Q. "Percentage wise, what is the likelihood this is one of the gentlemen who assaulted you?"
A. "About 90%."
Again she cannot positively identify the man in photo #4 when she states, "he looks like one of the guys." She also uses the word "sort" which may be referencing the guy (He sort of looked like one of the guys.) or she could be referencing the assault. (Who sort of assaulted me.) She is "about 90%" certain he was one of the guys who assaulted her. She said he had a mustache on the night of the assault but the attorney for this defendant claims his client never wore a mustache.
PHOTO #7
A. "He looks like one of they guys who assaulted me."
Again she uses the same language "he looks like one of the guys."
Q. "How did he assault you? Which one was he?"
A. "He was the one standing in front of me. Um, that made me perform oral sex on him."
When the word "standing" appears in a statement it is often a sign of tension and possible deception. This is not an absolute just an indication. This is more true when the word is applied to an inanimate object such as "I found the door standing open."
PHOTO #40
A. "He is the guy who assaulted me."
In describing her attackers, she talks about the first three as being "one of the guys." In talking about the fourth attacker, she states, "He is the guy." A change in language means there is a change in reality. Perhaps this is the only one she can positively identify.
Her language is consistent in that she always refers to the men as "guys" and she always uses the word "assaulted" to describe what happened. However, she does not positively identify three of the men that she claims assaulted her. Out of the photo line up, there were 17 men she recognized as being at the party. Four of them she says assaulted her. All 13 of the other men she appears to positively identify with statements such as "He was sitting on the couch in front of the television." "He was standing outside talking to the other dancer." "He was in the master bedroom." "He was there. He had on some brown shorts, kaki shorts." Yet, in identifying her attackers she uses non-committal language.
When deceptive people have to come up with a number, they will often choose the number three. Also, if a person does not know the exact number he/she may use the number three or three will be in the number. We have a lot of threes in this case. Initially, the victim told the police that she had been gang-raped and assaulted by three men and not four. She also said that the attack lasted for 30 minutes. In 1996, the victim reported to a police officer in Creedmoor, NC that three years earlier she was raped and beaten by three men.
Attorney Joe Cheshire said the dancers arrived at the house 30 minutes apart and that they only danced for three minutes and then decided to leave.
Jason Bissey, a neighbor who was on his porch next door during the party, said he saw at least 30 men go into the house. He also said about 3 minutes after the women drove away from the house, the party dispersed and the first police officer arrived.
More information has surfaced as to the statements given by the accuser, now known as Precious, to the police. This includes her handwritten statement that some news agencies have accquired. I have not seen the written statement. Here are some quotes as well as some other information reported to be in her statement.
"Three guys –– three guys grabbed Nicky. Brett, Adam, and Matt grabbed me. They separated us at the master bedroom door while we tried to hold on to each other. Brett, Adam, and Matt took me into the bathroom."
As I had mentioned "three" is a deceptive number. Not only did she say that three guys grabbed her but three guys also grabbed Nicky. Nicky is the stage name used by Kim Roberts the other dancer.
Precious gives the police two different names as to who raped her.
She also mentions two different names when stating who closed the bathroom door.
