http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/497941.html
Cheek stumps in DA race
Still says he won't take job if elected
Anne Blythe, Staff Writer
DURHAM - Lewis Cheek intends to spend a lot of time on the campaign trail for a man who said he had no plans to seek the district attorney's job and wouldn't take it if elected.
At Duke University on Thursday, the county commissioner looked like a politician on the stump when he took the stage at a barbecue sponsored by Ethical Durham, a political action committee endorsing Cheek.
"The message that I'm trying to convey and I think the message that I want to see conveyed is everybody ought to do what they think the right thing to do is," Cheek said.
Durham voters have several options when they go to the polls Nov. 7.
Incumbent Mike Nifong won the Democratic primary in May with 45 percent of the vote. After initially facing no challengers in November, Nifong encountered criticism over his handling of the Duke lacrosse rape case. He now is challenged by Steve Monks, a Republican running a write-in campaign, and Cheek, who maintains he would not serve but let the governor pick his stand-in.
Cheek -- endorsed by the Anybody But Nifong and Recall Nifong-Vote Cheek campaigns -- told the Duke students Thursday that he would vote for himself because his name is on the ballot. He urged them to vote Cheek, too, if they had concerns about Nifong and Monks.
Charlotte Woods, a campaigner for Monks at the Duke rally, said she was upset her candidate was not asked to speak.
"If it really was about anybody but Nifong -- Lewis Cheek said he doesn't want the job; he should drop out of the race," Woods said. "I truly feel it's more about not wanting a Republican in this powerful office."
The Nifong campaign could not be reached for comment.
Cheek plans to attend more rallies and meet with political endorsement groups. Still, he said, he would not serve if elected.
"I don't have any reason to view the situation any different now than I did last summer," Cheek said.
At the rally Thursday, students for Ethical Durham collected voter registration forms.
The students were so outraged by Nifong's handling of the lacrosse rape case that they have conducted a registration drive since August.
Many lacrosse players and their new coach, John Danowski, were at the Duke rally. Many wore campaign stickers for Cheek, but they said the barbecue was not so much about rallying for one candidate but urging participation in the electoral process.
"It was about register and vote," said Tony McDevitt, a lacrosse player at the team party where an exotic dancer alleged she was gang-raped.
The players and their coach declined to discuss the March party or the months since then. They focused on the coming election.
"This is a wonderful life experience," Danowski said. "They're learning about politics, the system and trying to effect change."
Staff writer Anne Blythe can be reached at 932-8741 or ablythe@newsobserver.com.
http://www.newsobserver.com/1185/story/498010.html
Second dancer disputes account
Her version given on '60 Minutes'
Joseph Neff and Matt Dees, Staff Writers
The second dancer in the Duke lacrosse rape case disputes part of the accuser's account in a "60 Minutes" segment airing Sunday night.
Reporter Ed Bradley asks Kim Roberts about a handwritten April 6 statement in which the accuser said three lacrosse players separated the dancers and took the accuser into a bathroom to rape her.
"Were you holding on to each other?" Bradley asks, according to a CBS press release. "Were you pulled apart?"
"Nope," Roberts says. She adds that's the first she has heard of that account.
Roberts also says she didn't go into the bathroom and help one of the alleged rapists dress the accuser, as the accuser wrote.
The accuser has given widely diverging accounts of Roberts' behavior in the early hours of March 14. She told a nurse at Duke Hospital that Roberts, who called herself Nikki that evening, urged her to have sex with her and one of the men. The accuser said Roberts pushed her out of a car later and stole her money.
In the April 6 statement, the accuser said that three men named Brett, Adam and Matt grabbed her. "They separated us at the master bedroom door," she wrote, "while we tried to hold on to each other."
Three men dragged her into the bathroom and raped her, she wrote.
"I heard Nikki on the other side of the door, and when Adam opened the door, she rushed in and helped Adam to get me dressed. They dragged me out to the car because my legs couldn't move. Nikki said, 'What happened girl, did they hurt you?' I said yes, and she said that she would get help for me."
In the "60 Minutes" segment scheduled to air at 7 p.m. Sunday (WRAL-TV in the Triangle), Bradley also talks to the three defendants in the case.
One of them, Dave Evans, was asked whether he thinks about the possibility of being found guilty.
"Thirty years -- I could go to jail for something that never happened," Evans says.
Staff writer Joseph Neff can be reached at 829-4516 or jneff@newsobserver.com