< Previous page

Nine days after that interview, according to the security manager Thomas, the woman was filmed dancing at the same club she had performed at the weekend before the lacrosse party. A three-second clip of the video was first shown on the CBS show "60 Minutes." The News & Observer viewed a copy of the entire pole dance segment.

The video segment, about a minute long, shows the woman, introduced as Precious, as she approached a floor-to-ceiling pole on a stage, dressed in a thong and skimpy top. She grasped the pole and lowered herself into a squatting position, so that her buttocks almost touched the floor. With her hands on the floor, she stretched out her right leg vertically, as though she was kicking to the ceiling while squatting, and waved her leg several times to either side of the pole.

The accuser's appearance was part of a longer recording documenting an event at the club that began March 25 and continued past midnight.

Thomas said that an acquaintance of his filmed the evening and that the dancer seemed fine throughout the night.

"She was regular. She danced like she always danced, good old Precious." He said he has known her since the beginning of the year.

On March 28, she returned to UNC Hospitals complaining of pain in her neck, back and knees, according to documents in the investigative file. The doctor noted that she was in no obvious distress and did not renew the prescription for narcotics.

She returned to UNC Hospitals on April 3, again complaining of neck pain of 10 on a scale of 1 to 10. "The patient is a well-appearing African-American female in no apparent distress," the doctor wrote.

On April 11, the accuser met with Nifong and several investigators. Nifong said the woman was still so traumatized at this meeting that she barely spoke and did not discuss the alleged assault of one month earlier.

"She probably did not speak 15 words," Nifong said in court Friday. "She had trouble making eye contact. She looked like she was going to cry."

< Previous page