The defense timeline is backed up by a cab driver who said Seligmann called for a ride at 12:14 a.m., and was picked up five minutes later. The defense argues that if the dancers were performing around midnight, Seligmann would not have had enough time to participate in the 30-minute assault described by the accuser.
The cabbie, Moez Mostafa, also said he saw a woman leaving the party in anger, and overheard someone say, “She just a stripper. She’s going to call the police.”
“She looked, like, mad,” he said of the woman. “In her face, the way she walked, the way she talked, she looked like mad.”
On Thursday, authorities released warrants detailing their search earlier this week of Finnerty’s and Seligmann’s dorm rooms. Police took a newspaper article and an envelope addressed to Finnerty from his room, and an iPod, various accessories, computer manuals, photos and a CD from Seligmann’s room.
Also Thursday, 5W Public Relations, a New York firm that specializes in “crisis communication,” distributed an e-mail signed “The 2nd Dancer,” and Roberts confirmed she sent it after learning the AP knew her identity.
“I’ve found myself in the center of one of the biggest stories in the country,” she wrote. “I’m worried about letting this opportunity pass me by without making the best of it and was wondering if you had any advice as to how to spin this to my advantage.”
Ronn Torossian, 5W’s president, said he replied, but got no response.
“If this person is indeed who they say they are, I would be happy to speak with her,” said Torossian, whose firm has represented the likes of Sean “Diddy” Combs, Ice Cube and Lil’ Kim.
Roberts, like the accuser a divorced single mother who is black, took umbrage at the notion that she should not try to make something out of her experience. She’s worried that once her name and criminal record are public, no one will want to hire her.
“Why shouldn’t I profit from it?” she asked. “I didn’t ask to be in this position ... I would like to feed my daughter.”
Roberts said she knows what it’s like to sit in jail, and that she would never wrongly accuse an innocent person.
“If the boys are innocent, sorry fellas,” she said. “Sorry you had to go through this.”
But unlike her and the other dancer, she said, they have money to hire the best attorneys.
“If they’re innocent, they will not go to jail,” she said. But, she added, “If the truth is on their side, why are they supporting it with so many lies?”
Roberts is bracing for an all-out attack, but said she’s almost past caring.
“Don’t forget that they called me a damn nigger,” she said. “She (the accuser) was passed out in the car. She doesn’t know what she was called. I was called that. I can never forget that.”
- Discuss Story On Newsvine
-
Rate Story:
LowHigh - Instant Message
MORE FROM OTHER SPORTS |
 Other sports Section Front |
| Add Other sports headlines to your news reader: |
Sponsored links