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http://www.nydailynews.com/08-27-2006/sports/college/story/446936p-376320c.html
Date rape drug issue overlooked in Duke case and others

BY CHRISTIAN RED
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER

In the early-morning hours of March 14 in Durham, N.C., a 27-year-old single mother of two was slumped in a car in the parking lot of a 24-hour supermarket, glassy-eyed, incoherent and seemingly passed-out drunk.

A security guard called 911 and the events that would roil a town and even the country began to unfold: Two African-American women had been hired to strip at a Duke University men's lacrosse team party, a raucous gathering at a campus house, fueled by plenty of alcohol. One of the women claimed she was dragged into a bathroom and raped anally, vaginally and orally by three white players during a half-hour stretch. There was the divisive aftermath, with cries of the privileged against the poor, black versus white. Then three indictments, and critics from all corners of the country arguing the credibility of each side.

But one possible element in the troubling case has received scant attention - whether the woman was slipped GHB (gamma hydroxy butyrate), or a similar "date rape" drug at some point during the party. According to court records and a source close to the case, neither investigators nor the Durham district attorney has requested tests of the victim's blood or urine samples for GHB or other related drugs.

Both women have said they were given mixed drinks upon arrival and the second dancer has said the alleged victim soon began behaving erratically and was "out of it." About an hour after she claims she was raped, police found the alleged victim in the parking lot near campus. The officer who first arrived at the scene said the woman "collapsed to the ground" when he removed her from the vehicle. She was examined by a sexual-assault nurse at Duke University Medical Center later that morning of the 14th, about two hours after the alleged attack.

That decision to not test for GHB could play a role in Durham District Attorney Michael Nifong's case against the three men - co-captain David Evans (who graduated this spring) and incoming juniors Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty - depending on what the results would have been.

"You can pretty much incapacitate almost anyone with a handful of pharmaceutical drugs," said Doug Scott, a former police lieutenant who worked 18 years in nearby Cary, N.C., and who now trains state health care professionals and law enforcement officers on the dangers of drugs like GHB. "And I'm really surprised that we haven't been hearing more about the possibility that this woman may have been impaired by some covertly administered drug. I went through the time line (of the case) and it really looks like (the victim) was impaired fast."

It is conceivable that tests could still be done on the woman's hair (as long as she has not cut it in the six months since the incident), or on urine or blood that has been properly preserved.

"GHB gets incorporated in protein that is called keratin that makes hair. As long as you don't cut the hair, you will have GHB there," Dr. Nikolas Lemos, the chief forensic toxicologist at the San Francisco office of the chief medical examiner, said in a recent interview.

According to Trinka Porrata, a former Los Angeles police detective in the narcotics division who is now president of the non-profit Project GHB, if the woman's blood and urine samples are still available - and were stored properly - there is no reason why a test could not be conducted now.

Added Scott: "I believe that any time an investigator has reason to believe that there is appreciable or gross impairment, or other indicators that point toward even the possibility of a drug-assisted sexual assault, they should proceed to investigate that until it has been confirmed or eliminated as a possibility."

A Durham police spokeswoman did not return calls asking for comment on whether investigators have ruled out doing a GHB test now.

According to Porrata, it would not have been unusual for the Durham investigators to fail to test for GHB in the first place. Testing for date-rape drugs is a complicated, expensive process. Blood and urine samples must be collected in a timely manner since GHB remains in blood about 12-24 hours and in urine approximately 72 hours.

In the Duke case, the woman was taken to the hospital emergency room around 2:30 a.m., so it is likely any such drugs would have been detectable. The problem, said Porrata, is that police officers and investigators often lack basic knowledge about the drugs used to facilitate rapes and sexual assaults.

"It's rare for law enforcement agencies to routinely test for GHB in rape cases," said Porrata. "It's really tough for smaller departments to cover those types of tests on their own, with the costs involved. It also usually requires a specific request by the detective (to have a drug test done) and many agencies still aren't aware of the various 40-plus drugs that are out there."

Porrata also said that in a typical rape kit, standard tests are conducted first for marijuana, heroin, amphetamines and PCP. "You run into limitations with the amount of blood or urine samples," she said. " By the time you get through the other standard tests, there's little or nothing left to test for GHB."

In North Carolina, a GHB test would have had to have been conducted by an outside agency such as the State Bureau of Investigation. A spokeswoman for SBI told the Daily News that it is the obligation of the local law enforcement agencies or the hospital in question to request such a drug screening during any rape case. Scott said that when he retired from law enforcement in 2003, "there still had not been any training done" with officers regarding date-rape drugs. "You really need training from the bottom up."

When a rape victim is brought to a hospital to be examined, it is standard procedure to complete a rape kit, though aspects of the kit may differ from state to state. Scott said the North Carolina rape kit has changed very little since he retired from duty.

"A victim presents him or herself as a rape victim and is taken to a hospital where a rape kit is completed," Scott said. "The kit is used to collect evidence - hair, tissue, DNA, as well as urine and blood samples. Medical staff at the hospital usually complete the steps, in my experience, and then a law enforcement officer seizes the evidence to protect the chain of custody."

Once the evidence is protected, however, a police officer must consult with the DA about the case. "If it is felt that there is a possibility that a drug-facilitated sexual assault may have occurred, the DA's office must request in writing to the SBI that the blood and urine samples be examined for (such) drugs," said Scott.

Nowhere in the report of the search conducted in the house two days after the incident does it indicate that investigators were looking for hints of a date rape drug. There were a few items that detailed a possible struggle: fake fingernails found at the scene, the woman's makeup bag, ID card and cell phone as well as money she claims was stolen from her.

"Why weren't items related to drug-facilitated sexual assault included in the search warrant?" asked Scott. "The absence of those things would indicate to me that it wasn't even a thought."

Originally published on August 27, 2006