Had three meetings with her before December. Somebody always there with them. Says he never discussed any facts of the case with her.
First time he met her was April 11 with Himan, Gottlieb and others. “She seemed to be at that point, the word I would use, is somewhat traumatized. When she sat in a chair she sort of shrunk.” Again, the social worker training kicks in. She was a victim from the start.
Said it became obvious she was not ready to talk about the case, from her demeanor. “It struck me that it would have been a total waste of time,” he said. “My impression was that something really bad had happened to her and she wasn’t ready to deal with it,” he said.
Met with her a few months later, doesn’t remember the exact time. “At that point we wanted to make sure she was doing OK,” he said. Wanted to find her a place to live outside of Durham. Media were hounding her, he said. Yeah, ask Reade about that. Some woman support group looked for her a place. Told him she had no transportation so wanted to be back in Durham. “That’s pretty much all we talked about.”
We knew she would have to testify at any suppression hearing regarding the photo lineup. Knew she’d be called on Feb. 7 at a hearing on the suppression motion.
Witt: When was she briefed about what she would say at the Feb. hearing? Nifong: She was in a high-risk pregnancy at the time. Hard to schedule anything. But I asked Linwood Wilson in prep for trial to interview Mangum. Williamson: For the trial? Nifong: The hearing and a trial. Said no one had talked to her about the exact version of what happened. Seems to dispute notion that she changed her story. Says sexual assault victims often have variations in stories because of trauma.
Seems to be saying all the early cops who took notes got the story all wrong, like the guy who found her at Kroger. Also, said a Duke officer overheard on a radio that she was raped by 20 men. Says what was probably said was she was raped at a party where there were 20 men.
Once that has been “mistranscribed” it becomes fact, he says. So he asked Wilson to get it straight.
