Taxicab Driver Explains Accused Duke Player's Alleged Alibi
In First Interview on Incident, Driver Says He Saw Nothing Suspicious About Suspect
Almostafa also remembered one critical detail -- after Seligmann's call at 12:14, he said, it took approximately four minutes to travel from his cab stand to the place where he would pick them up. When Almostafa arrived, he said, Seligmann and a friend, a fellow lacrosse player but not co-defendant Collin Finnerty, were waiting for him on a street corner roughly a block and a half from the house where the party was taking place.
If Almostafa's testimony is true, it suggests that Seligmann would have left the party on North Buchanan Boulevard at 12:18 a.m. or earlier. According to a defense timeline, a series of digitally time-stamped photographs of the party seen by ABC News show the alleged victim, a student at North Carolina Central University, dancing and talking in the living room until at least 12:03:57.
Nothing Apparently Suspicious About Behavior
Almostafa said that he didn't pay close attention to Seligmann and his friend during their roughly 20-minute ride in his taxi. He said he only noticed the details of his passengers if "I have a sense if there's some problem."
However, he took away a series of impressions. Almostafa said Seligmann was not nervous, drunk, or out of sorts.
"They were just joking and laughing in inside my car, and everything [was] just fine," he said, of the men's demeanor.
Almostafa said he didn't notice anything unusual or suspicious about Seligmann or the friend who rode with him in the cab. When asked whether he had seen any sign of wrongdoing or any indication that they had been in a struggle, his answer was an immediate "no."
After he dropped off Seligmann, he went back for a second pick up of Duke lacrosse players from the party house. When he arrived, he noticed "a lot of people outside" -- a group of students standing around and a woman walking out of the house, across the driveway and into her car. The woman -- presumably the other dancer who did not accuse the men of rape -- was arguing with the students outside.
