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.

[Sacajaweau]

Money....Like "my pimp" keeps taking all the money.

[TexKat]

Are you having storms?

No, not at all. Its beautiful here in cowtown. I don't know what the prob is. Its been out for about 45 minutes now. I called the cable company and the recording states that there is an outage in this area.

[Jrabbit]

Greta was on with H&C when this broke....I can't remember what she said....I was laughing too loud! Seems she was having a difficult time following Seans statement about the harm that has been done if the boys were falsely accused.

She finally said lamely, "Oh, right, where do they go to get their DIGNITY back"......

[Howlin]

They are saying even they didn't know about this one. Odd, huh?

[maggief]

Sorry for the umpteenth repost.

---

ZAHN: Jason Carroll, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

Just a bit earlier on, I spoke with Joe Cheshire, the attorney representing one of the Duke lacrosse players.

(snip)

CHESHIRE: Paula, well, first of all, let me say this for a living -- let me say this about what this woman does for a living.

Anybody that knows what she does for a living and the reality of what she does for a living knows that she could have received those injuries any time before 12:00 that evening. Now, as -- as this trial goes on, we will be able to discover exactly where she is. But the fact that she may have had sex with somebody after 6:00 or before 6:00 would mean, if she went to the hospital, they would show that she had -- quote -- "injuries," which is a word I don't like, but a medical condition, or things in her body, consistent with the fact that she may have had sex with somebody.

(snip)

CHESHIRE: Well, I'm -- I'm not going to say or share what we know about her. Obviously, we have done a lot of work on her.

And, when someone makes an accusation, that accusation has to stand up to the actual physical facts of what happened. First of all, hers will not stand up to the actual physical facts.

Secondly, you pointed out that they need to have no motivation to lie. I believe that the lawyers in this case will be able to show, on cross-examination and on the presentation of evidence, that she did have a motive to lie.


http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/17/pzn.01.html

[mojo114]

Me too- However, these boys- all on the team have been hurt for life. Some of the threads have said that even boys on the team that were on job interviews in other cities are being hurt by this. Not to mention if any one of these men will ever put on their resumes for college or jobs that they ever played Duke Lacrosse.

[snarkytart]

The DA went forward because he was in an election year, and his comments were to satisfy the nutso zealot protestors, he promised them indictments.
He did not take time to investigate, he indicted instead.

[Sacajaweau]

Disagree....They don't want to give you parallels so they left it out. "3" men is enough for me.

[mystery-ak]

That usually happens to me when I really want to watch something.......they've got less than 10mins to fix it for you...

[txrangerette]

You just know there has to be more, Howlin. No telling...

[dubyawhoiluv]

she has such a big mouth resembles a julia roberts/sarah bernhard twisted spawn child; the only difference is she's a lawyer.

[SuzyQue]

Nope - no ignorance here. Just willingness to listen to both sides.

[TexKat]

She finally said lamely, "Oh, right, where do they go to get their DIGNITY back"......

Was that in a sarcastic or sympatheic manner.

[mystery-ak]

Exactly.....if the DA decides to dropped this case without offically clearing these boys, this accusation will haunt them forever....and even if the AV retracts these charges, how much coverage will the MSM give that!

[maggief]

Nifong is a moron who thought while giving 70 interviews he could pander for votes. During the debate the other night he made this telling concession:

“I underestimated the attention the case would get if I let the news media know why I was going to take the case,” he said.


http://www.wral.com/news/8999502/detail.html

[F.J. Mitchell]

Hell, the Black Panthers are coming to her.....rescue now, passing out inflammatory literature it is said, stirring the cauldron of blacks hatred of whites.

This stripper is turning into the "Mrs O'Leary's's cow" of Durham.

[OldFriend]

In my humble old fashioned opinion, anyone who sells one on one lap dances to strangers is a whore.

That she followed the lap dance with stealing the john's car and then trying to run down a police officer in her haste to escape tells me more than I ever wanted to know about her.

[nopardons]

Yes, something very UGLY happened that night...a black stripper yelled rape, when no rape happened and is now looking to "cash in", on playing the race and sex card.

Have you read any of the previous threads, here, about this topic?

Al Sharpton, is that you?

[On the Road to Serfdom]

I agree the accuser is a prostitute. Your post seemed like it could divert the discussion to a debate about how serious a crime it is to rape a prostitute. In my opinion raping a prostitute is more serious than stealing her money, but that is not relevant to this case since she was not raped.

[snarkytart]

YOUR ORIGINAL POST!

"It sounds like something ugly happened that night, and because of the accuser's occupation and unsavory past, some very sick young men may get away with an anwful crime.

There is no way to know for sure, but there is a lot of information that paints these young men and the events of that night in a less-than-positive light. I hope I'm wrong - but we don't know enough to convict OR exonerate these young men yet. Ditto the accuser.

_____________

Sure sounds like you are keeping an open mind.