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.

[F.J. Mitchell]

That is merely your opinion of course and opinions are like a--holes; everybody has one.

In my humble opinion, being innocent of rape, but yet being accused of rape by one who may well have been raped but not by you (and your accuser being fully aware of your innocence) and the lifetime stigmatization of such a charge, would be harder to bear than would be the actual pain and trauma of someone who was in fact raped.

[noblejones]

>>
I wonder if Jesse Jackson will have the nerve to traipse down to Durham again? Even he has to know that this skank is lying.
<<

You do not understand the most reverend mr Jackson: he always knew -- and he never cared.

[noblejones]

>>
Guilfoyle's a babe.
<<

Like this? : http://imdb.com/title/tt0112431/

[Howlin]

Have you all seen this?

http://media.putfile.com/Easter-Visitor

[JLS]

I thought I heard the photos were verified by a forensics expert.
___________________________________________

I did not hear that, but I doubt high powered defense attorneys like these would release such photos only on the word of their very young clients. I would think they would value their reputations more than that.

Of course Nifong has a primary Tuesday. This may just be smoke so that every white person in Durham does not believe he has joined the race baiters and votes for someone else. My view is any prosecution leaks until after Tuesday must be considered through a political lens.

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

We used to go to the mall in Greensboro when we wanted to shop. Eden had the barbeque. Greensboro had the mall and Reidsville had the best fish camp.

Miller was a great place to work back then and they paid damned good. When we were transferred to NY the pay went only 1/2 as far as it did in Eden. We have always regretted leaving Eden.

[Howlin]

Fuzzy's and Libby Hill? Or Mayflower?

[noblejones]

>>
The only scandal in this whole affair is that Duke canned the coach based on false accusations.
<<

Nah. The team HAS been too rowdy over the last couple of years by all accounts. Yes, the members of the team are all independant adults, but the coach does need to enforce some kind of off-field discipline.

Cancelling the season was criminal and the Duke president should resign.

[snarkytart]

Agreed.

Of course Nifoang is going to claim the photos were doctored, but without the camera how can even they say that??
Blowing smoke.

What happens when the second DNA test is negative, what will he say then!

[Protect the Bill of Rights]

It says statutory rape and she was beaten.
Odd

[snarkytart]

Nifoang

meant

Nifong

[snarkytart]

Goodness I am losing it.
That entire sentence was all crazy.

I meant to say, without the camera how can Nifong even suggest to the media the photos were doctored?

He puts his foot in his mouth.

[JLS]

It says statutory rape and she was beaten.

Odd
_________________________________________________

I think by listing it as statutory rape, the reporting officer reminds investigators that this rape is one that arguing consent will not work. I think he is saying it was both forceable and statutory rape.

[snarkytart]

It says statutory rape and she was beaten.
Odd
_____________

Beaten and held against her will.

Maybe the police characterized it as statutory rape because of her age and it was her boyfriend?
I don't know. Could be a mistake on their part.
Clearly the description is of forcible rape.

[Carolinamom]

Anderson Cooper re-run up on CNN now.

[snarkytart]

Good point.

[JLS]

Of course Nifoang is going to claim the photos were doctored, but without the camera how can even they say that??
Blowing smoke.

What happens when the second DNA test is negative, what will he say then!
________________________________________

He will either be the nominee or he will be in a run off or he will be a lame duck. Which ever it is will determine what he has to say.

[noblejones]

>>
Yes. With "PLEASE COME FORWARD" over their heads.
<<

If that happens, I will walk the 350 miles to Durham and help search.

Then I'll move to France.

[snarkytart]

I hope he is a lame duck.

I bet he loses.

[snarkytart]

I hope he is a lame duck.

I bet he loses.