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.

[toldyou]

Interesting, Oak.

After 2AM here. Goodnight all.

[snarkytart]

Yes. It's kind of unbelievable. She has so much baggage it's overwhelming and then the case has so many holes.

The DA is responsible here. There was absolutely no rush to indict, he could've investigated for months (and months). Some many people wanted this attack to be true.

When you have an accuser with No credibility - none - you'd think they would've investigated more. Gathered all the facts. Then you have 70 interviews in a media tour and then an ELECTION forum at the the girl's historically black University where the DA speaks out against these guys.

What a travesty, but the media is out to lunch because this story doesn't fit their agenda.

_________________

Excellent post!

[OakOak]

YES. And she's saying her life was threatened - and

in that case, we're told she dropped it because she feared for her safety.

It's Scary this thing has got this far and she still has so many supporters on TV.

[snarkytart]

Goodnight everybody..or should I say good morning.
It is 2:20am and I get up at 6:30 am for work.

Ping me when something else happens!

[Ken H]

If I'm not mistaken, the defense filed a motion requesting the DA's files on this case. Have you heard anything further?

[JLS]

The DA will have to turn them over. But there has not been a hearing yet for a judge to order that. The hearing is 15 May, I believe.

[xoxoxox]

"I do not know if these pics were taken with a cell phone camera or a regular digital camera.
I assume they were using the cell phone. I cannot imagine too many guys carrying around a digital camera..most young people use their cell phone to take pics now."

Why was the 'photographer' taking these 'pictures' ?

If it was a cell-phone, then perhaps an image was transmitted?

[OakOak]

Good Night. Guess I should go too.

Every time a blockbuster is delivered on this prosecution (Her Criminal record, the 911 call full of lies made by the 2nd stripper, 31 hours to provide account, DNA, the 25,000 stolen by the 2nd stripper and a warrant out for her arrest, Her mental hospitalization, the Alibi, the changing Broom attack, and NOW her previous Gang-Rape allegations - EVERY TIME, I keep expecting to hear and read reasonable people backing off the players and saying this is just too much. Too much, too many coincidences, too many inconsistencies - INSTEAD, they say it doesn't matter. The Boys did it and we want their heads. The Media should be in unison calling the DA out for prosecutorial misconduct.

See ya

[darbymcgill]

PS..lets not forget, according to Dan Abram's there is a photo that clearly shows a face of a man's watch worn by a player, and it matches the time on that is time stamped on the photo.

I've seen it and it's not clear, but you could make a case that the wrist watch shows 12:00..

I don't have a copy, I think it was in the initial slide show on Abram's web site... I can't find it any more...

Funny thing about the photos I do have, most of them are cropped, the time is not the time on the photo... it's been added after the cropping, so you can't tell if it's been added or changed (photoshopped)...

What I can see it that any of the "supposed injuries" on the AV have been photoshopped off.. there are some other items which appear to have been altered as well, other than the AV's face...

Since the changes are so obvious, my guess is the defense altered the photos before releasing them so as to only give out the information they wanted out....

[noblejones]

>>
so to be murdered is pretty bad but not as bad as being ACCUSED of it falsely?.......I am sure all the dead people who have been murdered would dissagree with you on that.....
<<

Have you ever served a life sentence in a maximum security prison on a bum rap?

[cherry]

"Have you ever served a life sentence in a maximum security prison on a bum rap?"

yes........

[noblejones]

>>
"Have you ever served a life sentence in a maximum security prison on a bum rap?"

yes........
<<

(NOTE TO SELF: Don't get cherry pissed off)

:-)

[VaFarmer]

For Heaven's sake folks.

15 guys could say nothing happened, when in fact it did.

2nd dancer could have failed to notice her colleague being raped in the bathroom

Photographer could have changed the date/time stamp in the middle of his series of photos, so that they would agree with all accounts of the dancers' arrival and then misrepresent the time of the other events.

Seligman could have raped somebody during the small intervals between his cell-phone calls or between calling a cab and walking a block and a half to another corner.

Finnerty could have been present the whole time of the party, despite other testimony apparently placing him elsewhere.

The AV in the pictures could have been viciously raped and not looked like it in the pictures of her departure.

The AV certainly could have been raped more than once by 3 men.

Being a stripper doesn't automatically disqualify your testimony.

Having a record of drinking and misbehavior doesn't automatically disqualify your testimony.

Being drugged or drunk doesn't automatically disqualify your testimony about what happened to you.

Identifying your attackers by name, and then retracting the name ID and identifying different attackers by photo doesn't automatically disqualify your identification.

Identifying your attackers by photo in a lineup consisting only of photos of a particular target group may not automatically disqualify your identification.

However....

Since it is the State's obligation to prove that the particular defendents in fact committed a particular crime against a particular person at a particular time, BEYOND A SHADOW OF A DOUBT...

It's time to get the point that there is no rape case to discuss (here or anywhere else) until the prosecution comes up with entirely new evidence.

WHY AREN'T I IN BED !!

Because I still suspect that the lacrosse players may have hired these strippers with a view toward degrading and humiliating them. When young white men hire black strippers, the event is enough out-of-the-ordinary to raise questions. This isn't a moral view of mine, just how the stripping business works on a day-in, day-out basis.

15 powerful, athletic men can't have a altercation with 2 women in an abusive and possibly threatening or even violent fashion without breaching any reasonable standard of civility. These guys look to have been way over the top. Disagreements about money, drinking, disappointment, the identity of the women don't remove the obligation to behave within the law and within the reasonable standards of a community.

Professional sex crime interviewers have a pretty strong set of screens to detect false accusations of sexual assault. In college towns, false accusations are extremely common and law enforcement is pretty savvy about handling them. The AV apparently survived these tests. Somebody believed her at some point. Why?

Chill folks. There is more to come somewhere. Wait for it...wait for it...wait...

[noblejones]

>>
We have always regretted leaving Eden.
<<

Just had to see what that apple tasted like, huh?

[txroadkill]

I'm telling you this case is never going to trial...

It sure as hell should... as a collective action suit by the Duke Lacrosse players against the Accuser and the DA's office.

[noblejones]

>>
When young white men hire black strippers . . .
<<

They DIDN'T request black strippers.

[VaFarmer]

OK-- Your info is that they didn't request black strippers. Got it. Thanks.

There is still more to come from somewhere.

Wait for it...wait for it....wait...

[flaglady47]

"Because I still suspect that the lacrosse players may have hired these strippers with a view toward degrading and humiliating them. When young white men hire black strippers, the event is enough out-of-the-ordinary to raise questions. This isn't a moral view of mine, just how the stripping business works on a day-in, day-out basis."

They didn't know the strippers that were being sent were black. In fact, I seem to remember that on one of the talking heads shows, this was a complaint of the LaCrosse players, that they had been sent black strippers. They didn't specifically request black strippers, so there goes your theory.

[VaFarmer]

Thanks again. Players didn't request black strippers. Got it.

Missed the source, though. Maybe you could help me out?

In the meantime, I have no theories and I'm still waiting to find out what the prosecution has in mind. Most professionals aren't total fools. So far there is no case to make against these fellows. I'm waiting for it cuz I don't think this is over.

I'm not at all sure that Nifong has a good case. It sure doesn't look like it. That doesn't mean that he has no case. Like I said earlier...

Wait for it...

[F.J. Mitchell]

Could it be construed as being raciest if the Black Panthers are referred to as the Black Polecats??