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.

[Dukie07]

My student is not concerned in the least. I wish ME saftey next week when I have to help move a dorm room into storage! :) As a parent I am always concerned - I suspect that will never change; but I do have confidence that all will be well. NBPP is milking this for all the TV face-time they can get. How many more gigs do you think Shabazz (sp?) might get if he just said, "Yeah, we're gonna be good." That's not the gangsta way.

[Neverforget01]

You're absolutely right--and I read Brodhead's remarks that the NBPP will be kept off campus..Shabazz probably has 10 followers..I'm guessing Durham is sick of the whole mess and doesn't want Shabazz either. He even claimed the mayor was going to be at his rally. I bet the mayor will be as far away as possible.

[toldyou]

Correction:

I couldn't believe the information you came up with. Like I said, priceless!

....one glass of wine...past my bedtime. What do you expect?

Seriously, thanks! I must save that post!

[darbymcgill]

That said, she wasn't raped. I just don't see any much mystery here anymore besides why is this case going forward.

From what we know as "the public" it doesn't appear that a rape could have occurred in the 610 house from 12:00 - 1:00..

But then again the reasion I joined FR o so many years ago was because of another famous inter-racial crime that I thought was a slam dumk...

Yogi might say "it ain't over til it's over

But Nifong still says "it's over when I say it's over..."

[Neverforget01]

There may have been a rape (unlikely) but Seligmann's ATM receipt gets him away from the house by 12:24 and back in his dorm at 12:46. No matter what time line is used, he couldn't have done it..so much for her 100%. Credibility is shot. No DNA, no case.

[JLS]

Like an umpire told me when I was a kid.... "It ain't nothing til he calls it..."
_________________________________________________________

That umpire was wrong. As a former colleague of mine liked to tell students their first day of class, imagine it is a tie ball game, bottom of the 9th, the bases are loaded, 3-2 count on the batter and the pitcher throws the ball and the batter does not swing. Who determines whether the home team wins or the game goes to extra inning? The answer is the pitcher and the batter.

A strike is something a pitcher throws. The umpire just calls it. If he does anything else, he is corupt and not an umpire.

Same for our students. They do the work and earn grades. I don't give them grades. The give themselves grades.

[TexKat]

Heres another for you. Its past my bedtime also. Goodnight!

ENSLAVED ANCESTORS ABSTRACTED FROM GRANVILLE COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA DEED BOOKS, 1828 - 1864

Bailey, Samuel to James M. Mangum. "...one Negro boy by the name of Twones?, about seven years old..." (BOS-1834, p. 350, book 6)

Mangum, Samuel to Rebecca Freeman [his daughter]. "...one Negro woman by the name of Mary about sixteen years old..." (DOG-1861, p. 401, book 21)

More

[darbymcgill]

A strike is something a pitcher throws.

Not exactly, a batter can convert a ball into a strike, something a pitcher cannot do...

A pitcher may throw what he thinks is a strike and a batter may take the same pitch he thinks is a ball...

It's the umpires job and the game ain't over until he makes the call... Because a third strike doesn't necessarily become an out...

If people weren't corrupt and always displayed good judgment we wouldn't need umpires... The players could call their own game...

Students may give themselves grades in some not so subjective subjects, but when opinions and interpretation are involved the biases and life experiences of the grade determiner are part of the process and can never be 100% subjective.

If students didn't perceive the instructors as being corrupt or unprofessional they wouldn't complain about their grades would they? ;)

[snarkytart]

I think they just laughed at a drunk stripper on the ground. I can imagine why the defense wouldn't want to reveal those photos unless absolutely necessary. It's just mean on the players' part.

That said, she wasn't raped. I just don't see any much mystery here anymore besides why is this case going forward.
_____________________

Agreed.

That is the real mystery, when will Nifong stop.

[JLS]

You are right, I should have said in that example. Certainly a batter can make a ball into a strike.

Students may also complain if they are rationalizing rather than thinking their professor is corrupt or unprofesional.

My point was that any umpire with that attitude has it all wrong.

[darbymcgill]

My point was that any umpire with that attitude has it all wrong.

I won't beat this dead horse, but an umpire operates best when everyone knows he is in control... When a kid throws his bad on the close call and trots to first, he's trying to take control... Hence the ump's statement....

[JLS]

My guess at what happened at the lacrosse party is:

1. Two drunk not very enchanting strippers arrive and perform perfunctorily, badly and for not very much time. I suspect looks had more to do with their reception than race. I further suspect the lack of performance was more associated with the customers not being nearly as threatening and low-life as many places they go. That is the strippers probably thought they could just walk all over these kids, do little or nothing and take off with $800.

2. The strippers had already been paid in advance. The players demanded their money back. The strippers said no way and names were exchanged.

3. The strippers went to the car, were coaxed back in, maybe a bit more performance took place, someone took back some of their money or promised more money to coax them back in and then refused to pay.

4. The stripper left again with the one with one shoe falling down. The marks did not help her immediately similarly to how if someone snatched your purse and fell down your first inclination would not be to help the up and to their car.

5. The stripper with two shoe probably took enough money from the stripper with one shoe to cover what she was promised. The stipper with one shoe was so out of it that to get rid of her the stripper with two shoes call the cops.

6. Finally as we all know to avoid the drunk tank or commitment or because her kids were at home alone or because she was short what she was to give her boyfriend/connection/pimp or any other reason AND because it had worked once or twice before when she was in a tight sport, the stipper with one shoe claimed rape.

7. The feminazis on the Duke campus saw an openning. They could get a male sports team. It was not a big publicity or money generator like Duke Football or Basketball, but it was an aggressive sport like those the don't like and as a bonus mainly played by European-Americans now not African-Americans ala those other sports. So they started beating the drums.

8. The race baiter were not to be out done by the feminazis joined in.

9. An unknown career assistant DA recently appoint as DA to fill out a term was running against an African-American and a woman. His wife does not use his name, nothing wrong with that, but it might indicate his politics would tend towards the groups he felt this case was losing him. His political and legal inexperience shows and he gives 70+ interviews and pressures her into identifying some players with rigged photo arrays trying to get the leftist and African-American vote back by pushing this case to an indictment before the primary.

And here we are. I think Nifong has hurt his election chances with this case. We shall know in a couple of day.

[JLS]

Certainly as we saw this week with the Durham Bulls, yes players need to accept the ump is in control and belief in the fairness of the ump goes along way toward that. I think the ump you quoted just did not express in a very good manner.

We off course saw this necessity via the other big story in Durham this week, ie the Durham Bulls player who threw his bat at the ump. And I don't mean to be contrary or continue to beat a dead horse either.

[JLS]

Interesting News and Observer long article on the case:

"DA, police to be 'tried,' too


Joseph Neff, Michael Biesecker and Samiha Khanna, Staff Writers
DURHAM - If and when the Duke lacrosse case gets to a courtroom, more than the defendants will be on trial.
So will the Durham police and the prosecutor leading the case."

http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/434410.html

[185JHP]

Travesty is an apt word for this thing. We may see a new word: "He/They got Nifonged."

[OakOak]

185JHP,

'Nifonged'

I like that, I really like that!

[snarkytart]

I agree with a lot of your theory on how this entire thing came about.

Also, thanks for posting the News and Observer article.

[snarkytart]

Oakey.
I swear, I see Nifong taking this thing as far as it can go.
As if he is thinking, "oh well, let a judge dismiss the case if I there is no evidence because I am not dropping the case."
Just look at his snide statement after the news broke about the accusers rape claim in 1996.
Nifong was basically saying he did not care because it probably would not be admissible anyway, and, 'oh btw I got two letters from former Duke students thanking me for moving forward because they were raped while students but never reported it.'

I could not believe he wrote that. I was thinking, there he goes throwing around rape claims without proof.

[Jezebelle]

I think you've misunderstood. The police didn't have enoguh information to initiate an investigation, so it was basically just a report. Unless Mangum gave the plice something concrete to work with, there was no basis for an investigationm which would be real good reason for chief to not remember it. Had there been an actual investigation, then I think he would remember.

[OakOak]

Snarky,

You're right! He's not going to drop this. There's nothing that will make him drop this.

I likened him, early on, to the Umpire in those parody Police story Movies with Leslie Nielsen. Leslie Neilsen, a dectective, takes over for the Real Ump to foil a crime. When he calls a strike, he's very timid and when he here's the crowd reaction - he's more and more animated and exaggerated as he gets intoxicated on the fan's reaction to him.

Nifong, whose mostly pleaded traffic tickets, went out to do National interviews and the Press absolutely loved him. They loved the story. It confirmed to them everything that they had ever believed; that laws don't apply to Rich, powerful, white males and their core, they're basicly bad.
They quickly embraced the portrayal of black women as inherently honest and hard working - and Victims of Powerful white interests. Nifong got giddy on the celebrity treatment he got from the Press. He became so emboldened that he even demonstrated, on National TV, how the victim
was grabbed from behind and attacked in her struggle to breathe. This is a no-no for lawyers as it locks them into a story. It's unethical for a DA (in NC) to make prejudicial comments on a case before it has been adjudicated. He did 70 interviews.

I agree with you. He has put his career, his very reputation on the line with this case. Now, he cannot go back. He cannot waver. He knows he has a jury pool that is sympathic and, IMO, biased. He has abandoned Justice; he is strategically pursuing a conviction at all costs. We can see that with the highly unusual number of DNA tests (over $100,000 for the first round) and then the RE-testing and additional tests ordered when he did not get the results he wanted. The DA is supposed to pursue the TRUTH - NOT CONVICTIONS. He has, during the investigation, pandered to the black community, attended an election forum at the victim's historically black school, and passed on misleading statements to the media.

I have NEVER said this in my life, other than this case, but, I fear the authorities may tamper with evidence in this case. They have 50 hairs from each lacrosse player. They have DNA swabs of every kind. They have access to their rooms and residences.

I really don't understand why the media doesn't call for - and why the GOV doesn't remove Nifong. This is an obvious abuse of his office.