Accuser in Duke lacrosse case wanted money, man says (DukeLax Ping)

Joseph Neff, Benjamin Niolet and Anne Blythe, Staff Writers DURHAM - Four days after she said she was raped, the accuser in the Duke lacrosse case told co-workers at a Hillsborough strip club that she was going to get money from some boys at a Duke party who hadn't paid her, the club's former security manager said.

"She basically said, 'I'm going to get paid by the white boys,' " H.P. Thomas, the former security manager at the Platinum Club, said in an interview Friday. "I said, 'Whatever,' because no one takes her seriously."

On March 14, the woman said she was assaulted and raped by three men at a lacrosse team party that began late on the night of March 13. Three players -- David Evans, 23, of Bethesda, Md.; Collin Finnerty, 20, of Garden City, N.Y.; and Reade Seligmann, 20, of Essex Fells N.J. -- have been charged with rape, sexual assault and kidnapping. All three have declared their innocence and called the accusations lies.

Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong declined to comment on Thomas' recollections. Thomas said he had not previously come forward on the advice of lawyers.

Nifong has said in court that nearly a month after the party, the woman was in his office and appeared too traumatized to talk about what had happened to her. Nifong said that throughout the April 11 meeting with Nifong and police investigators, the woman seemed near tears and had trouble making eye contact.

But less than a week after the party, Thomas said, the woman seemed fine, and weeks later, he realized a friend of his had a video of her dancing at the club in the early hours of March 26.

The accuser never gave any indication that the party was a bad time, let alone that she was assaulted or raped, Thomas said.

The News & Observer generally does not identify the complainants in sexual assault cases. The woman could not be located for comment Friday.

On March 17, the woman showed Thomas a hospital bracelet and paperwork. While she talked about being owed money, the accuser never gave any word or indication of being hurt, he said.

"The other girls would have known if something had happened," Thomas said. "If another dancer had been beat up or raped by a bunch of white boys, there would have been a ruckus."

Thomas said dancers must sign in when they take guests into the club's VIP room. He said those sheets show that the woman had signed in March 17 and 18. He said she also danced the following weekend.

The club's owner, Victor Olatoye, said the club's records show the woman was dancing at the club March 23, 24, 25 and into the early hours of March 26. Olatoye has no record of her working the previous weekend.

Olatoye said he had given a sworn statement to an investigator in Nifong's office last month initially saying that he had not seen the woman since February.

That night at the club, Olatoye checked his records and called the investigator back to change his sworn statement.

Thomas said he worked as security manager at the club from January through April. He said he had little to gain by coming forward because of a pending cocaine possession charge. Staff writer Joseph Neff can be reached at 829-4516 or jneff@newsobserver.com.

http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/news/local/15926637.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Duke lacrosse prosecutor Mike Nifong up for election - again

AARON BEARD
Associated Press

DURHAM, N.C. - Not long after voters picked Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong in May's Democratic primary, the embattled prosecutor insisted the election wasn't a referendum on the Duke lacrosse rape case.

Six months later, that's exactly what he and voters face on Election Day.

"There have been people who have sought to paint me as some kind of evil figure in Durham or are encouraging people specifically to vote against me," Nifong said. "And that makes the dynamic in this race a little bit different."

Of that, there is no question.

After Nifong won the primary, he appeared headed toward an easy November win - there wasn't anyone else on the November ballot. But as criticism of how Nifong handled the lacrosse case increased over the summer, two candidates emerged to run on the same platform of booting Nifong from office.

Both face an uphill battle to reach that goal. County Commissioner Lewis Cheek collected enough signatures to appear on the ballot, but doesn't actually want the job. Steve Monks is a Republican running a write-in campaign in an overwhelmingly Democratic county.

Neither has vowed to end the controversial prosecution of the three lacrosse players charged with rape should they beat Nifong, who had a wide lead in the only poll taken on the race. He has generally refused to talk about the case in recent months, but told The Associated Press this week he doesn't pay much attention to his critics.

"There are people who are going to support any defendant you prosecute," Nifong said. "They're going to have friends and family members who hope you wouldn't prosecute them. It's just not the kind of job where you can achieve anything close to unanimity of approval."

Regardless of Tuesday's outcome, Nifong's name will be forever linked to the case that began when a woman told police she was raped at a March team party where she was hired to perform as a stripper. The accusations came as Nifong, who was appointed to fill the unexpired term of his predecessor, was preparing for his first run for public office.

Nifong had thrust himself into the story in the days after the accusations became public, granting numerous newspaper and TV interviews. In April, a grand jury indicted players Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty with rape, kidnapping and sexual offense.

Two weeks later, Nifong earned 45 percent of the vote to beat his two primary opponents. A grand jury later indicted a third player, David Evans, on the same charges as Seligmann and Finnerty. Defense attorneys have proclaimed their clients' innocence, and have repeatedly said Nifong used the case for political gain.

"He just says whatever he wants to say because he's got his indictment, which was based on nothing that he did to interview or check out credibility of the (accuser)," said defense attorney Joseph Cheshire, who represents Evans. "He just went and indicted these boys."

The ballot box challengers popped up this summer. While Monks only collected enough signatures to become a write-in candidate, Cheek's campaign got more than 10,000 - significantly more than the 6,303 needed to add his name to the ballot as an unaffiliated candidate. But Cheek has said he would not serve if elected, which would force Gov. Mike Easley to choose a new district attorney should be win.

"For me, what ends up happening with that case still isn't the point for me," Cheek said. "The point is much bigger than that in my mind. ... The point is how is the district attorney in Durham is going to handle cases?"

Both campaigns have quibbled over which candidate has the best chance to beat Nifong and whether one should drop out so they don't split the anybody-but-Nifong vote.

"I think everybody ought to do what they think is the right thing to do," Cheek said. "I intend to vote for the name 'Lewis Cheek' on the ballot and we'll see what happens."

While it's important to have a choice other than Nifong on the ballot, Monks said, "it is even more important to replace him."

newsobserver.com | Identity theft ring found; three arrested in Durham

Published: Jan 01, 2006 12:30 AM
Modified: Jan 01, 2006 04:33 AM

Identity theft ring found; three arrested in Durham

An identity theft ring was uncovered in the Residence Inn hotel Saturday morning, police said.
At 10:30 a.m., officers found three men in a room using a computer to print counterfeit checks, modeled after genuine checks they had stolen, said Lt. L.L. Clyburn of the Durham police. Also in the room were marijuana and gift cards that may or may not be counterfeit, Clyburn said Saturday night.

The three suspects -- Haydn Thomas, 31; Jamel Ellerbee, 20; and Jarrod Evans, 25 -- were arrested. They face charges of obtaining property by false pretenses and accessing computers for the purpose of furthering a fraudulent act and a misdemeanor for the marijuana found in the room, Clyburn said.

"The investigation is continuing, and additional charges are pending," she said. "The pending charges will probably fall under fraud."

She said police files show all three men have lived in Durham at some point in their lives, but their current addresses remain unknown.

"From what I can understand, they rented one room," Clyburn added. "[The Criminal Investigations Division] was contacted in reference to fraud because the room rented out was rented with a stolen MasterCard."

Durham police arrived at Residence Inn after a 911 call from an unknown source. The reason for the original call is also not known.

The uniform patrol who arrived at the scene then notified the CID, and Investigator Chris Chappell was assigned to the case.

"[Chappell] has been working that case pretty much all day, and we'll continue to work it," Clyburn said Saturday.

Staff writer Meiling Arounnarath can be reached at 932-2004 or meiling.arounnarath@ newsobserver.com.

Possible relatives (Veromi)
1. ELLERBEE, JAMES A KNIGHTDALE, NCRALEIGH, NC
ELLERBEE, JAMEL
ELLERBEE, LORIANNE A (age 45)
ELLERBE, LORI A View Details

2. EVANS, JARROD J 25 RALEIGH, NC

EVANS, JOSEPH EDWARD (age 51)
CARBALLOLIETCH, LAURA CARBALLO (age 50)

Hayden Thomas- SUSPENDED SENTENCE for ID Theft. Conviction Date 8/11/06

DOC# 0944038

Another conviction in Durham 3/14/06 Carrying a concealed weapon (Note the date; probably a coincidence)

Does it mean he is not telling the truth? No. It does show that in Durham, birds of a feather stick together. I would not expect boyscouts to be bouncers at these places, but My, oh my. This case has Durham's low life crawling out of the woodwork. BTW Residence Inn --wonder if Precious knows the Residence Inn???

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/highschool/bal-sp.duke04nov04,0,6771148.story?coll=bal-hs-football

From the Baltimore Sun
Still drawn to Duke
After allegations surfaced, area football recruits did their homework - and are glad they enrolled

By Jeff Barker
Sun Reporter

November 4, 2006

DURHAM, N.C. -- The phone was ringing in the northeast Baltimore home of Sheldon Bell, a promising high school football player who had signed a letter of intent to attend Duke University.

It was last spring and the media had begun to report an African-American woman's allegations that she was raped by three white Duke lacrosse players at a party and that racial taunts were overheard. Duke coaches were scrambling to reassure Bell and other recruits about their decisions.

Bell's mother, Paula, believed in Duke but needed to investigate for herself. She wanted to make a pilgrimage that any mother could understand.

On their next trip to Duke in April, the family drove around campus to see if there were signs of racial tension, as the media had reported. They even stopped at the worn, wood-frame house where the alleged rape was said to occur. "This is my only son," says Paula Bell, a bank loan administrator whose faith in Duke was soon restored. "I wasn't going to just give him to anybody over the next four years."

To her relief, her son, who arrived on campus several months ago, says Duke has become the place he thought it was. Sheldon Bell, a Baltimore City College High graduate, says the lacrosse case raised questions but didn't dim the luster of a university he was smitten with for its reputation and beauty. The wide receiver is not even bothered much by Duke's 0-8 record. The Blue Devils, who host Navy today, play with an abundance of underclassmen that gives Bell hope for the future.

For Duke officials, part of the fallout of the lacrosse case was reassuring Bell and other recruits - black and white - that the Duke in their minds matched reality. While there remains public doubt about whether a rape occurred, a trial is expected next year.

To the Bells, it was a lesson in keeping things in perspective. "My mom just wanted to make sure Duke is actually what it is believed to be," Sheldon Bell says. "I think she came to realize that it is."

Still, the allegations were delicate for African-American athletes at the time. For many of them, Duke is already an adjustment.

Bell's high school is predominantly black. By contrast, African-Americans number about 11 percent of Duke's undergraduate population, a figure that parallels the totals for other schools that recruited Bell, such as Maryland (12.9 percent) and Virginia (8.9 percent). About two-thirds of Duke's football team - and about half of the team's freshmen -is African-American.

Bell and buddy Glenn Williams, a sophomore safety for the Blue Devils from Baltimore's Archbishop Curley, have been in classes where they are the only black students. Bell calls it "a change" but quickly adds, "I know why I'm here." He is considering majoring in computer science and is interested in a business career if the NFL doesn't beckon. He turned 18 last month and is redshirting this season so he can gain strength and learn the offense.

Neither Bell nor Williams says he has felt singled out because of race since arriving at Duke.

Both room with other African-American football players, Bell on the East Campus where the freshmen live and Williams on the West Campus. In a sense, the football team provides a cocoon - a regulated environment that typically begins at 7:30 each morning with team meetings and practice.

"Whether you're white, African-American, purple, these kids do everything together. They hang together, they eat together," says Duke offensive coordinator Bill O'Brien, a former University of Maryland assistant who helped recruit Bell.

Bell and Williams say they like Duke enough that they've talked to another Baltimorean, Gilman linebacker-fullback Ben Eaton, about attending.

Work to be done
By mid-April, the lacrosse case had attracted the attention of national civil rights advocates such as the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who expressed concern about white lacrosse players hiring black strippers for a party. One of those strippers, a 27-year-old student at historically black North Carolina Central University, told police she was pulled into a bathroom and raped by three players.

North Carolina Central's chancellor appealed to students not "to seek retribution or take matters into their own hands." On March 31, Duke officials alerted students to a rumor of a planned "drive-by shooting" of a house near where the alleged rape occurred, but nothing came of it.

Some Duke administrators and students believe the racial dimension was overplayed in the media. At the same time, they acknowledge there is work to be done to make certain minorities feel welcome in society and on Duke's campus.

"This sensational coverage which drove this case was, in part, motivated by the very real concerns which surround race and class in our society, and particularly in our criminal justice system," says Ed Douglas, a white Duke lacrosse player from Baltimore who has been elected co-captain for the spring season.

While Douglas calls such issues "legitimate," he says that "with respect to this case, however, I believe that race was used to play off of very powerful emotions and consequently distorted the events."

When the story broke, Paula Bell said the family received reassurance from Duke coaches. "They said that what we heard on the news was a little blown out and that their commitment to us was still the same," she said.

Said O'Brien: "I just think we called and said Duke is a lot bigger than that one night."

Some black students at Duke worried that the lacrosse players might be coddled. "White male privilege is an issue here," Teshonne Powell, an undergraduate from Atlanta told The Sun last spring in an e-mail interview.

But Williams said he didn't worry about the lacrosse case coverage scaring Bell away. "I was confident that the players who had their hearts set on Duke were going to stick with their choice," Williams said.

And that's what Bell and the other recruits did. No incoming recruits changed their minds, O'Brien said.

Self-segregation
Bell, who says he's the first member of his family to attend college, smiles broadly when he recalls how his mother wouldn't relax until she had studied the campus environment herself. Paula Bell said she was comforted when she arrived at Duke and found no obvious signs of discontent. At the lacrosse house, she said, "there were only flowers and a teddy bear and a balloon placed there."

Paula Bell said she is fortunate to have never had occasion to counsel her son about handling racial prejudice at Duke or anywhere else. "Some of his dearest friends, even in high school, were of a different race, so it's never been a problem," she says. Plus, she says, "my son knows right from wrong."

In the aftermath of the rape charges, Duke officials have been studying how to bring minority groups together more often in social settings. "I don't mind saying that people in the '60s and early '70s referred to Duke as 'The Plantation,' " says Durham Mayor William V. Bell. It wasn't until 1963 that the medical school accepted its first black student.

Today, William Bell says Duke is increasingly sensitive to racial issues but that he hopes for more interaction with the Durham community, which is about half black. He said he wishes he would see more Duke students strolling down city streets, such as one called "Black Wall Street," because of the successful black-owned businesses there.

Elizabeth Chin, a visiting professor in the cultural-anthropology department last spring, says she welcomes Duke's self-analysis. As in many other environments, she said people at Duke often "self-segregate." She says she encouraged students of varied racial backgrounds in her class to work on projects together so they might break down stereotypes.

"I think there's a lot that Duke could do, but they need the courage and commitment to do it," Chin says.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.