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.

[Peach]

Good catch, Carolinamom!

[maggief]

And, she hide all of this abuse from her father?

[Alia]

Ping to maggief's post #1317.

[Alia]

And, she hide all of this abuse from her father?

Yeah. And, like, why?

[gopheraj]

But how did Kim get to the Kroger in a dark car if she left the house in a white car?
I tihnk the woman who came and left in a white car may have been the owner/manager of the "business" who sent the women and she went there to try to collect the money.

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

14 years old and an adult boyfriend? Where the hell were her parents then?

That family must have some interesting dynamics. I would be willing to bet no one told Daddy (if it did happen) because she was afraid he would beat the sh!t out of her before he went to kill the boys.

[Alia]

My two cents? He wasn't getting satisfaction out of the marriage with her. She probably blamed all their "marriage" issues on that earlier "rape". He was being supportive of her, encouraging her to file the report in order to "move on".

It's possible, that in one year of therapy -- let's suppose with a GOOD therapist -- that if the therapist was Freudian trained, they'd only gotten her to age 10, and after a one year of therapy.

[toldyou]

LOL!

[TheSpottedOwl]

And, she hide all of this abuse from her father?

Hell, I don't know. A normal father doesn't look at his teenaged daughter's behind, but the rope burns would be hard to miss...

The sense of confusion generated by the information dump, suggests that this is being done on purpose by AV's advisors and family. I think we're being baffled by BS. Imo, this is to try and divert attention from the real evidence, and don't even tell me that those time/date stamps were fudged!

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

My radar is up. I am starting to wonder if her father may have been responsible for those burns and the beatings described in the article.

It may be expected for family members to be foggy on details, but not have 2 versions of every single statement made to the press.

I wonder who else in the family has records.

[Alia]

It may be expected for family members to be foggy on details, but not have 2 versions of every single statement made to the press.

Exactly. That family is hiding something. And I don't know what it is. But their stories don't wash, stay consistent, or in otherwise, make sense.

And now Nifgong is asserting that Freda Black had a "relationship" with a criminal, excuse me, defendant...maybe that's why he took her parking spot away.

Okay. ... I'll ask the question: What's the dad's involvement in Crystal's activities? Has he a criminal background? Has Crystal been "handy" in paying off his debts? Has he investments in the Escort industry?

I've been curious about this since the very early beginings when he claimed she came home calm, asked him to store her car, and then days later claims she was beat up "mighty bad", could barely walk.

[TheSpottedOwl]

My radar is up. I am starting to wonder if her father may have been responsible for those burns and the beatings described in the article.

Vulcan mind meld, dude : ) Right after I just posted to Alia, that very possibility crossed my mind! They're trying to cover up something, and to do that, confusion reigns!

I'm starting to think everyone in that family has a "record".

[Sacajaweau]

This boys were smart if they took the photos on cellphones and I'm sure they bought the best. Their system likely contains not only the date and time but also the GPS data. It's extremely accurate at this point in time.

[Neverforget01]

What did he have to investigate? She made an allegation, that's all

Perhaps you've misunderstood. I'm merely questioning the failures to recall. Unless Creedmor has a huge crime problem, an accusation of a teen being gang raped by three other teens is not something anyone would forget imo. There was one reported rape in Creedmor, NC in '96. I'm assuming this was it. For some reason, they chose not to investigate despite three people being named. My guess in a town this small (2000) the police chief AND investigating officer wouldn't forget why. No way the case wasn't brought to the chief's attention, unless rape accusations are common in Creedmor (not accrding to NC statistics). There's probably a really good reason for not going forward with the case; I just wonder if the chief really forgets what it is.

[Alia]

...and a "real" mother, seeing the cigarette burns and injuries around young 13/14 year old daughter's wrists DOESN'T MARCH HER TO THE POLICE? TAKE her to the EMERGENCY ROOM?

Why not?

What mother in the world would not move heaven and earth to do right by her child. I'd a been a momma lion breaking down doors and packing heat... had Crystal been my daughter.

Okay. Let's factor in that at the time of the first alleged rape when Crystal was 13 or 14 (can't get a straight one on that one, possibly because Crystal's BD falls somewhere mid-year), the age of sexual consent was 13. I repeat, 13.

But she was "assaulted", badly, from reports. No law in the world would have prevented me from going after those older "culprits" with everything I had.

Meanwhile, the father, in re that 1993 "assault" says "nothing happened". But now says he saw the evidence of the assault on her.

Let's posit that he "blamed the victim", in that she willingly went with those who assaulted her, in 1993; and that's his reasoning.

Did the daddy go after those guys? Did they pay up in some way? Was this one of those "we don't need the stinkin' police; we have our own community and our own measures of policing "our people" situations?

You betcha there's a lot wrong, going on with this "story".

Was the realier issue that Crystal had a drug problem which prevented her from making very crucial (survival) Life Decisions? And this is what the parents will not discuss? Something else? That, there was the larger issue: something going on which was actually bigger, and the alleged 1993 rape just a side story?

Is Crystal a sex addict? Needing sex in order to "approve" herself?

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

I have to take son to work, but don't want to lose this thought---

Dad was a truck driver-wonder if local or long haul.
Mom works in a paper factory? Wonder if she worked/works night shift.

Wonder if Dad has alcohol history?

note to self: "hold that thought."

[Sacajaweau]

Yeh, right. What are the chances that these boys had a broom in the first place? There is no broom listed in the items which were confiscated.

[SirJohnBarleycorn]

Legally I can see this shaping up as a battle of psychiatric experts, if this gets to trial.

Absent some clear evidence not yet known, the 1993 rape accusation basically comes down to a they said/they said, and I think a trial judge will rule that the evidence supporting the interpretation of that event as a false accusation of rape, which the NC appellate courts have ruled is an exception to the NC rape shield law, is not strong enough to be allowed in on that theory.

However, it may come in through a back door. A critical issue for the defense will be whether the AV's history of mental disturbances will be allowed into evidence, specifically the week of her recent mental breakdown and then the year of counseling following the 1993 event, as well as anything similar that may come to light. Defense psychiatric experts will argue that her history of mental disturbances is relevant as an explanatory factor for why she would be inventing or fantasizing the rape in the bathroom by the lacrosse players. Prosecution psychiatric experts will argue that her psychiatric therapies are not relevant and would be prejudicial to the accuser. How the trial judge rules on this will be key.

If the trial judge allows the evidence of her mental disturbances, then the 1993 rape allegation may come in by way of background to the earlier psychological trauma. There is an exception in the NC rape shield law for "evidence of sexual behavior offered as the basis of expert psychological or psychiatric opinion that the complainant fantasized or invented the act" charged. The 1993 event may be deemed relevant to an understanding of the 1993-1994 psychological disturbance, and it is possible that a trial judge will allow the evidence under the exception to the NC rape shield law I described.

[SirJohnBarleycorn]

<< I am starting to wonder if her father may have been responsible for those burns and the beatings described in the article. >>

I saw on another board that the father was described in a report as only 125 lbs and frail. The reason suggested why the family didn't clue him in on the full story in the 1993 event is they were afraid he would confront the then-boyfriend and get hurt.

[Howlin]

quit the office shortly after Nifong was appointed to the position.

And we all know why she quit.

That story is very biased; that's not exactly how it went, if I recall correctly.

And Nifong was the person who named that rule the Freda Black rule.

He's a very vendictive petty little man.