Posted on 03/28/2006 10:21:27 PM PST by Howlin
(03/28/06 -- DURHAM) - Duke University's highly ranked men's lacrosse team won't play again this season until school administrators learn more about allegations that several team members raped an exotic dancer at an off-campus party, the school said Tuesday.
University president Richard Brodhead had decided to suspend the team from play "until there is a clearer resolution of the legal situation involving team members."
The suspension raises the possibility the Blue Devils will miss the rest of their games. Duke has four games left on its regular-season schedule, followed by next month's Atlantic Coast Conference tournament in Baltimore and a likely bid to the NCAA tournament. Last year, Duke lost to Johns Hopkins in the school's first appearance in the national title game.
No one has been charged in the case, which has roiled the campus, raised racial tensions and heightened antagonism between the affluent students at Duke, which costs about $43,000 a year, and the city of Durham, which has a large population of poor people and is about evenly divided between white and black. Armed with a judge's order, police took DNA samples with a cheek swab from 46 of the lacrosse team's 47 players last week. The 47th player, the only black member of the team, did not have to provide DNA because the dancer said her attackers were white.
"I needed to have the information about who will be charged," said District Attorney Mike Nifong said Tuesday. "I feel pretty confident that a rape occurred."
Brodhead said the team's captains notified Duke athletic director Joe Alleva on Tuesday the team wanted to stay off the field until results of DNA testing came back from the state crime lab. Brodhead said it was his decision to expand the suspension.
"In this painful period of uncertainty, it is clear to me, as it was to the players, that it would be inappropriate to resume the normal schedule of play," Brodhead said. "Sports have their time and place, but when an issue of this gravity is in question, it is not the time to be playing games."
An hour before the rape was reported, 911 operators received calls from another woman who was walking by the party.
"It's right in front of 610 Buchanan [Blvd.] , and I saw them all come out like a big frat house, and me and black girlfriend are walking by, and they called us n-----s," the caller said.
An hour later, a 27-year-old dancer reports being strangled, kicked, beaten and raped by three members of Duke's lacrosse team. Traumatized and full of fear, she retreated to a nearby grocery store and refused to get out of the car until an officer arrived.
"The problem is, it's a lady in somebody else's car and she will not get out of the car," the 911 caller said. "The owner of the car is right here and she says she can explain what happened."
The documents say some players threatened to assault the victims sexually with a broom as they performed. Court documents also say team members tried to create an "atmosphere of confusion" by giving fake names to hire the strippers.
Investigators say they are encountering a stonewall of silence against a mounting pile of evidence.
"Based on what I know about the crime, is that it is highly unlikely that the people at that crime scene who where not directly involved in the crime did not know that something untoward was going on," said Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong.
Two weeks into the investigation, Nifong says he has received little cooperation from Duke lacrosse team members.
Durham CrimeStoppers is making a new plea for help in the investigation. Officials sent out an e-mail Tuesday afternoon, saying in part:
"Although we have received many calls expressing concerns and anger about this incident, we have not received any calls which would allow us to assist in resolving this case&We are extending our plea for information and help to our Duke family, who are also part of our community."The police department's plea is the latest in a PR battle between investigators and Duke University officials. It comes one day after Duke President Richard Brodhead said the team had been cooperative.
"My information is that they have been cooperating all along with the investigation," he told Eyewitness News.
DNA samples from the lacrosse players did not come voluntarily. District Attorney Nifong said Tuesday that Duke is not hampering the investigation.
Meanwhile, the Durham chapter of the NAACP is asking for a private meeting with Duke officials.
I work for an attorney who went to Duke and he is the nicest, most generous man. Not all Dukies are jerks!
Woo-Hoo! I was so excited to see them get to the Final Four.
did you see this?
Probably, but only because I don't trust the press. If they are innocent, then the DNA should go a long way towards proving it without their having to tangle with the press.
exactly...and if the media gets it wrong, the damage is irreversible
She was a stripper! But that still does not excuse or condone their actions. She was raped, period.
Yeah...I saw the story early this AM in the Times and the Post. I didn't bother you with it since I didn't want to be the one to bring you this awful stuff about your favorite sport. A lot of these guys are from NY and NJ (big surprise) but I don't know if the perps were from around here.
46 of 47 players are white, and the three she accused are white. That's why they did not take DNA from the black LAX player. She is black.
-----
Ooops.
That's a switch, usually it's the stippers that use fake names.
How dumb would they have had to have been to give their real names? LOL
Somethign happened, that's for sure, but the team is adamant that they are innocent of the charges.
We shall see by next week, but in the meantime, we're going to be treated to the usual rantings and ravings of any group who hopes to jump on the train. NAACP is already heard from, of course.
If she retains Gloria Allred, I smell Sharpton-Brawley all over again.
I'm waiting for DNA results. And facts.
Am totally burnt out here on "spin" City "young political identity trainee" at the microphone and before the cameras schtick.
I'd pay to see professional lacrosse if it were around here. If I were emperor, I'd ban soccer tomorrow and get those not playing baseball into lacrosse (it's a Spring sport). It's fast (like soccer), has significant contact (unlike soccer), has scoring (unlike soccer), and requires opposable thumbs (unlike soccer). It's probably the fastest growing sport in the country right now.
My son played his last 3 years of H.S.
Do it. You'll love it.
Defense lawyers representing members of the Duke University men's lacrosse team say prosecutors are trying to convict their clients in public in a rape investigation before any charges have been filed.
---
"Each and every one of those young men who were present at this party categorically deny that any assault of any description took place," said Durham lawyer Bill Thomas, who said he represents one of the captains. "The entire Duke lacrosse team looks forward to the results of the DNA test in order to clear their names."
---
Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong said Wednesday that even if DNA results, which are expected as early as next week, do not match team members, no one is necessarily exonerated. The attackers could have used condoms or might not have been team members, Nifong said.
"How does DNA exonerate you? It's either a match or there's not a match," Nifong said. " ... If the only thing that we ever have in this case is DNA, then we wouldn't have a case."
---
Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong said Wednesday that even if DNA results, which are expected as early as next week, do not match team members, no one is necessarily exonerated. The attackers could have used condoms or might not have been team members, Nifong said.
"How does DNA exonerate you? It's either a match or there's not a match," Nifong said. " ... If the only thing that we ever have in this case is DNA, then we wouldn't have a case."
The lawyers criticized Nifong's frequent interviews in local and national media outlets. Nifong is running to keep his job against three candidates in May.
"The fact that the DA is out in public saying these boys are guilty is just extraordinary," said Joseph B. Cheshire V, a prominent Raleigh lawyer who represents team captain Dave Evans. "I am absolutely convinced, and I think that everyone in that house will testify, that nothing like these allegations happened."
http://www.newsobserver.com/1185/story/423471.html
Thanks. I was just reading this...Maybe they weren't even on the team??? What a shame...
"Fortunately, I preferred staying closer to home and picked UAB. Free ride for me. :) "
Every officer I worked with from UAB, or for that matter all Alabama schools were top notch.
The thing that's going to totally bury these guys is the fact that a virtually all-white team appears to have specifically employed black strippers. It's going to be awfuly hard for their defence to prove that this wasn't racial incitement of some form. Not only that, but it seriously undermines the 'just booze and lack of judgement' argument. If the prosecution proves that a rape took place, he has good grounds to go further an accuse the rape of being both premeditated AND racially motivated.
If these guys are guilty they are going to get what's coming to them and a whole world of trouble on top of that.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.