The Other Dancer Speaks
Kim Roberts goes public.
In Durham, the second stripper—whose name is now disclosed as Kim Roberts—gives an interview to the Associated Press. It doesn't clarify things much.
"I was not in the bathroom when it happened, so I can't say a rape occurred -- and I never will," Roberts tells the AP.
But after watching defense attorneys release photos of the accuser, and upset by the leaking of both dancers' criminal pasts, she said she has to "wonder about their character." "In all honesty, I think they're guilty," she said. "And I can't say which ones are guilty ... but somebody did something besides underage drinking. That's my honest-to-God impression."
This is unconvincing.
Nor does it inspire confidence to note that Roberts is facing criminal charges of embezzlement—just as it does not inspire confidence in Collin Finnerty to note that he tried to beat up a gay guy for being gay—and that she e-mailed a New York public relations firm asking for advice on "how to spin this ]Duke situation] to my advantage."
"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."Ka-ching!
Roberts does indeed seem to have spun this to her advantage: She was arrested eight days after the infamous party on charges that she embezzled $25,000 from a photofinishing company where she was working. On the day that indictments came down against the lacrosse players, a judge ruled that Roberts would no longer have to pay a 15% fee to a bonding agent. D.A. Mike Nifong signed a document saying he would not oppose the change.
"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."
Which, of course, means that she has a financial incentive to support the allegations of rape. If nothing happened, her story isn't worth anything.
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."
I'm sure she'll make a great defense—I mean prosecution—witness.
Roberts also admits that she was the one who called 911 claiming that she had been called racial slurs by white men outside the party. And though the article is unclear on this point, it sounds like she admits that she made up those accusations. "Roberts acknowledged that she made the call because she was angry," according to the AP story. Angry because of the lax players' obscene suggestions regarding a broomstick, or because racial slurs really were directed at her? Hard to say.
Roberts does say this...
"
Don't forget that they called me a damn nigger. 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."
I'm not going to call Roberts a liar, but this story strikes me as awfully convenient.
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Correction: As a poster points out, Roberts was convicted of embezzlement in 2001, and the new charge was related to a probation violation stemming from that conviction.
