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.

[GoMonster]

What evidence do you have to support your claim? Just curious?

[Libertarian444]

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

Nifong, you dumbass.  They scammed you.

[LWalk18]

The ESSENCE story is different from the AP. The reporter in ESSENCE claims that she was told by the family that she was raped when she was 17 or 18 and after that she received therapy and medication. The AP story claims that she reported at 18 a rape that occurred when she was 14, based on a report that they have seen.

[chae]

Sorry, but the more I learn about this woman, the less I think the lacrosse players did anything. I think that she was drunk and/or high.
This sounds so much like Tawana Brawly, I can't imagine that anyone not blinded by class envy or racial prejudice can believe this woman, especially after this, not to mention all the other evidence that has failed to support her version of events.

[Carling]

Oh please. The two accused have alibis, the DA doesn't even have a set timeline, there is no DNA, and the 'witness' has changed her story repeatedly.

Nice rush to judgement.

[SirJohnBarleycorn]

This raises a lot of questions which I hope the reporters follow up on.

Very interesting that the allegations were made in the summer of 1996 but the alleged three-man rape was to have occurred three years earlier, in 1993.

Almost certainly the only evidence the police had to go on in the case was her word against that of the men. Were the three men people she knew beforehand or strangers? Were they white or black? If they were people she knew, did she have a perceived greivance against them that developed in the summer of 1996? It would be interesting to hear the accused's version of what happened.

The accusation must have been made the summer after her graduation from high school in Durham.

What she was doing in nearby Creedmoor in the summer of 1996? Did she move there after graduating high school? Or does she have relatives in Creedmoor she visits? Did it make sense to police that she was even likely in Creedmoor in 1993? Were all of the men even living in Creedmoor in 1993?

From her experience in the 1996 case, the AV probably saw that it came down to her word against the men's word, which ultimately was not enough to get an indictment, although undoubtedly the accusations made those men's lives miserable for a time.

Did the AV think the same thing was going to happen here, that she would get revenge for being "dissed" at the party by making false accusations of rape and expected the guys to get investigated for a while by police, but not actually charged? Is that why she didn't pick out any individuals until three weeks later, at which time she realized it had become a much bigger deal than she had foreseen, and it was too late to back down so she had to pick somebody?

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

Three men???
Not one, not 2, but 3.

I would love to get my hands on that statement to compare stories.

Wonder if some sh!t was getting ready to hit the fan in 96?

[noblejones]

When will the "We Are Sorry" marches going to take place?

[noblejones]

You *are* joking, right?

[MHGinTN]

You can't scam someone looking for an issue and seizing on this race hustling accusation.

[ladyjane]

Fan It sounds like something ugly happened that night,

It did. A woman got drunk and falsely accused some college kids of raping her.

[SirJohnBarleycorn]

After hearing this 1996 story, I'm beginning to wonder if she didn't INTENTIONALLY identify as the rapists guys she didn't see at the party.

She found herself in way over her head, and maybe figured that picking the wrong guys would be the best way to extricate herself from the whole matter and make it go away?

Except that now she is finding that an electioneering DA, the race hustlers around her, the drive-by media, etc., won't let this thing drop and insist on absurd rationalizations to keep it alive (they must have worn rape jackets, raping while on the cellphone, cabbie paid off for the alibi, going to the ATM specifically to establish an alibi, etc.)?

[Cowboy Bob]

I just wonder if these three men were innocent.....and once again it's 3.....3 is the magic number...what are the chances of that happening to you twice!

Did one of the men have a mustache? Just wondering :0)

[TankerKC]

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.

Well, isn't it obvious that our entire system is racist and sexist?

[TankerKC]

She found herself in way over her head, and maybe figured that picking the wrong guys would be the best way to extricate herself from the whole matter and make it go away?

Uh...if she wasn't raped, they were all the "wrong guys."

[SuzyQue]

Which claim would that be?

[Jrabbit]

Oh my.....what a mess! I'm definitely not surprised!

[SirJohnBarleycorn]

As I said, I'm referring to guys she didn't notice were there at the party

On the other hand, while Seligmann was only there for a few minutes, he does have a distinctive face

[SuzyQue]

It does sound much like the Brawley case. And if that is what it is, I hope she is punished. However it shakes out, I hope the guilty parties are exposed and punished.

[toldyou]

They didn't have any money.