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.

[maggief]

Regardless of behavior, one could argue that rape isn't sex. It's an act of violence.

[TexKat]

New Poll Soon on Durham DA Race

(04/28/06 -- DURHAM) - We will soon get a fresh snapshot of how the candidates stand in the race for Durham district attorney.

ABC11 Eyewitness News is conducting an exclusive poll about the race. We expect to have the exclusive results on abc11tv.com around noon Monday. District Attorney Mike Nifong is trying to hold on to his seat in Tuesday's Democratic primary. His challengers include former prosecutor Freda Black and Durham attorney Keith Bishop.

While our pollsters conduct a scientific survey, abc11tv.com is conducting an unscientific poll. Look at the bottom of this page to weigh in with your opinion.

[TexKat]

[GAgal]

According to your link in 1993 the accuser was picked up at the scene of the attack by family members who took her straight to the police station, where she made a full report. She said she was raped by two of the three boys.

[SuzyQue]

Actually it was my last statement. If you want to misread it, that is up to you.

[Dante3]

The accuser was 14 at the time of the first alleged rape. Even if she did not want to pursue it, it would make no difference since she was a minor.

[maggief]

Can anyone keep these stories straight?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,193495,00.html


The mother of the accuser told Essence magazine this week that the woman declined to pursue the 1996 complaint out of fear for her safety. FOX News then confirmed through a family member of the accuser the details of the Essence story.

The accuser’s father said Thursday night he remembered little about the previous incident except going with police to a home in Creedmor where he said his daughter was being held "against her will."

Asked Thursday if she was sexually assaulted, her father said, "I can't remember." In an interview with the Raleigh News and Observer posted Thursday night on the newspaper's Web site, he said the men his daughter accused in 1996 "didn't do anything to her."

But the accuser's cousin, Jackie, told FOX News that the 1996 allegations of a sexual assault were not fabricated. She said that case has nothing to do with the Duke one. She added that Essence Magazine "wined and dined" and misled the accuser's mother into revealing various information.

(snip)

A family member of the accuser told FOX News that the alleged victim was picked up at school by two boys, one of whom was her boyfriend. They then took her to one of the boys' houses. The family member recalls her saying that only two of the three boys raped her, and that the third boy was questioned by police only because it was his house.

The family member said the woman was picked up at the house of the alleged attack and taken by family members to the police station, where she gave a full report.

The family member does not know why charges weren’t pursued, but recalls that the accuser's boyfriend's mother begged the accuser to drop the matter, saying her son was already in trouble with the law and she did not want him to go to jail.

[Publius22]

"She added that Essence Magazine "wined and dined" and misled the accuser's mother into revealing various information."

What? Misled her into lying or just revealing the truth?

[maggief]

It sounds like she had a couple liquid loud mouths and spilled the beans. Of course it's Essence's fault because they picked up the tab. :-/

[abigailsmybaby]

I didn't misread anything.

In your very first statement you convicted them. In your second statement, the one I copied a section of, you said there wasn't enough evidence to convict or exonerate, but you had already convicted them in your first statement.

[JLS]

I'm confused. I thought CM didn't report the first rape until 3 years later.
________________________________________

Why, there is not reason they could not have picked her up at the house and three years later have driven her to the police station? :-)

[JLS]

I was busy all day. Can someone summarize anything of substance since last night's police reports from 1996? I did see Nifong's press release the one time I was able to check in today.

[Dante3]

In the unscientific poll, Freda Black leads with 51%. I was impressed with her job in the Michael Peterson case. Nifong is at best utterly incompetent.

A latent functions of Nifong's fiasco is that the stripper trade will lose business. Strippers have been found to be unstable, have an unusually high of committing a homicide (as well as being a victim) and of doing drugs.

Unfortunately, by making this a race issue and involving the antisemitic Black Panthers, blacks will end up feeling more discrimination.

Hopefully, Duke will obtain a new president.

[LWalk18]

Keep in mind that ESSENCE is a magazine targeting black women. What would be their motivation to "trick" Crystal's mother? The article in which this was written was sympathetic towards Crystal.

Was she raped at 14 or 16? The family can't even keep the story straight.

[Howlin]

There's nothing much of substance; we pretty much got the gist of it last night.

Disagreement in the family as to whether she was 14 or 16 and the father said 1) she was raped, 2) nothing happened, 3) he went to the house to find out what happened, and 4) he didn't know until a few days ago.

The family can't seem to get the story straight.

But NBC17 did go and find one of the "boys" she named in 1996 and he said he'd never heard one thing about it, didn't know he was named.

[JLS]

Since the current age of consent in NC is 16 and I doubt it has been recently lowered, I would guess she was 14 or at least less than 16 since the reporting officer wrote "statutory" on the complaint.

As I said last night, I suspect he wrote statutory because she was reporting 3 years later and was of age but he wanted to remind investigators consent would not absolve a suspect. Her being 18 and a three year gap, suggests she was likely 15 at the time of the first claim, but who knows.

[JLS]

Thanks for the update.

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

Here is my opinion FWIO:

Nifong is an idiot
Bishop is impossible to understand-never plea bargin with a DA who cannot be understood.

By default, it is Freda.

[Locomotive Breath]

Damn good point!!

[leilani]

But NBC17 did go and find one of the "boys" she named in 1996 and he said he'd never heard one thing about it, didn't know he was named.

A reporter on Fox talked to one of the earlier alleged gang rapers who said he was 13 at the time, his brother was one of the others the accusers named, he'd never heard of the woman before let alone raped her when he was 13, didn't have any idea he'd ever been accused of rape by her before. (No authorities had ever interviewed him about it, evidently.)He also said he wasn't really happy that he'd been fingered by this woman, because he was getting married soon, and this was going to put a damper on the whole thing for sure. So the body count of lives wrecked by this sick woman keeps mounting.