Duke Lacrosse Accuser Made Previous Report

AP ^ | Apr 27 2006 | AARON BEARD

[Conservative Coulter Fan]

The woman who says she was raped by three members of Duke's lacrosse team also told police 10 years ago she was raped by three men, filing a 1996 complaint claiming she had been assaulted three years earlier when she was 14.

Authorities in nearby Creedmoor said Thursday that none of the men named in the decade-old report was ever charged but they didn't have details why.

A phone number for the accuser has been disconnected and her family declined to comment to The Associated Press. But relatives told Essence magazine in an online story this week that the woman declined to pursue the case out of fear for her safety.

The existence of the report surprised defense attorneys, one of whom has sought information about the accuser's past for use in attacking her credibility.

"That's the very first I've heard of that," said Bill Cotter, the attorney for indicted lacrosse player Collin Finnerty, who along with fellow Duke sophomore Reade Seligmann is charged with first-degree rape, kidnapping and sexual assault. He declined additional comment.

Attorneys for Seligmann asked the court this week to order the state to turn over the accuser's medical, legal and education records, and hold a pretrial hearing to "determine if the complaining witness is even credible enough to provide reliable testimony."

The accuser, a 27-year-old student at North Carolina Central University in Durham, told police she was hired to perform as a stripper at a March 13 party, where she was raped by three men.

According to the Creedmoor police report in August 1996, when the woman was 18, she told officers she was raped and beaten by three men "for a continual time" in 1993, when she was 14. She told police she was attacked at an "unspecified location" on a street in Creedmoor, a town 15 miles northeast of Durham.

The report lists the names of the three men, but no other details. Creedmoor police Chief Ted Pollard said Thursday he had no recollection of the report, and his staff has been unable to find any additional information about it.

Durham police Officer Brian Bishop, who interviewed the accuser in 1996 while working on the Creedmoor force, said Thursday he had a vague recollection of the report but couldn't remember any details.

When asked about the accuser's previous report of rape, Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong declined to comment.

Before Seligmann and Finnerty were indicted, attorneys for the players pointed to the accuser's criminal history when answering questions about their clients' legal troubles. The woman pleaded guilty to several misdemeanors in 2002.

[Locomotive Breath]

Actually, Nifong's letter says, "Damn it, before this release everyone thought I picked a loser, and now everyone knows I picked a loser."

[Jezebelle]

Well, if she wasn't a resident there, it may be that very few people ever knew of the complaint - probably just the PD employees and a handful of people they told.

[Howlin]

I noticed he never mentioned any of the letters or emails attesting to the character/innocense of the accused....

I'm guessing he got a lot more information about her than he's willing to admit.

[Carling]

Exaggerated flair like that added to the 'M' and the 'N' signifies a person of a rather large ego. I am no expert on this at all, but a girlfriend I had in college studied handwriting as a hobby and I remember a few of the "tells".

Hubris, which I've seen upthread, is an excellent word to describe this cad.

[Jezebelle]

I have wondered if that was in her past and might be, in part, driving this.

[maggief]

Thanks. :)

[dubyawhoiluv]

and got knocked up w/i weeks of sea duty by a guy on ship,left husband had 2 kids by this guy, relationship lasted briefly

[Jezebelle]

There are ways to get it in. The defense will argue every which way from Sunday to get it in. I think they'll get it in, too.

[Carolinamom]

In allowing a known gun-bearing hate group onto the Duke campus, the likelihood of violence, whose leader has said they're going to make contact w/the LAX, is not something students' parents would condone unless they are brain dead. This smells like a lynch mob allowed to have its way.

[dubyawhoiluv]

so she lied to get in the navy, I wonder if she recieves any type of disability (psych wise) that she attributed to the military; shouldn't her benifits be snatched

[ladyjane]

Since the mother is on leave from her job she'll be available to march Monday morning at 10 am with the other unemployed malcontents.

Duke deserves every ounce of bad publicity it gets. He has failed its students and its athletes. They're going to allow this group to march on its campus monday?!probably armed?

May 1 is when prospective students have to return their deposits to enroll for September. What parent in their right mind is going to send their 17 year old child to that environment?

Compare the response of Duke with that of Boston College. News reporters showed up and the BC police threw them off campus.

[Peach]

Abrams has the info that the stripper says she was raped by 3 men and didn't report the rape for 3 years.

[Jezebelle]

The father is a compulsive liar. He makes stuff up like a four year-old does.

[Peach]

Abrams interviewing police chief in Creedmore. The only thing they can locate is the report filed by the stripper in 1996 alleging a sexual assault and beating that occurred in June 1993.

Cops were contacted by the AP when they read an article in Essence magazine where the family did an interview. AP asked cops to look into it and found the report.

[Peach]

From the info the cops have been able to obtain, they believe the stripper chose not to pursue the 1993 rape case further. No one in the police office has a specific memory of the allegation.

[Locomotive Breath]

This smells like a lynch mob allowed to have its way.

---

Ya' think? If they touch even a single hair on the head of a Duke student Brodhead should bear the blame and pay for it with his own head (figuratively speaking - just in case Mike Nifong is reading my posts). What a horrible precedent. In the sixties, Universities worked very hard to keep outside agitators off campus. Now it's "come on down".

[Peach]

Abrams: Parents told media stripper raped by boyfriend and 2 of his friends. She was so frightened she didn't press charges and she became suicidal and they took her to a therapist.

(And yet, the father seems to have forgotten this incident entirely).

Reporter says that one of the alleged attackers was 13 years old at the time and never knew until NOW that he was even named as an attacker. He also says he doesn't know who she is. He's never heard anything about this until now.

[Howlin]

NBC17 tracked down one of the accused.

He said he has no idea WHO she is, he's never heard anything about it.

And he said he's getting married.

Mark him down as yet another man hurt by this woman.

[Peach]

Abrams: Nifong seems to think the old rape charge isn't even relevant. He is playing the statement that Nifong gave today before the press -- talking about the rape shield law.

[Peach]

She's like typhoid Mary. I'm thinking men need to be protected from HER, not the other way around.