Father learned daughter connected to Duke case from media reports (Duke Lacrosse Coach Threatened)

DURHAM, N.C. - The father of the woman who has accused members of the Duke lacrosse team of sexually assaulting her said he didn't find out that his daughter was the reported victim - and that she is an exotic dancer - until a reporter visited his house.

The retired trucker who lives in Durham said he saw his daughter the day after the reported attack, but she didn't say anything was wrong. She even left her car at the house for several days because he said she didn't want to drive it.

Her father, a quiet man who tinkers on cars as a hobby, said he saw news reports about the attack.

"I didn't know it was my daughter," he said. The Charlotte Observer generally does not name victims of sexual assault, so his name is being withheld to protect the identity of his daughter.

The case has ignited campus protests and stirred racial tension in Durham. The woman at the center of the case is black, and the men she accuses are white. She also is a student at N.C. Central University, a historically black college near Durham's inner-city, compared with the more expensive Duke campus.

DNA tests have been conducted on 46 of the lacrosse players, who deny the allegations. A 47th member, who is black, was not tested because the woman said her attackers were white.

Last week, a reporter stopped by the reported victim's house looking for her, the woman's father said, but he said he didn't know what was going on. He called his daughter and she said the district attorney told her not talk to anyone.

He said he also found out through the media that his daughter, who is the youngest of three, was an exotic dancer.

On Friday, he installed a timing belt in a car and watched his daughter's two children play outside the house. He said working on cars and playing with the grandchildren helps take his mind off what's happening with his daughter.

He said she seems to be doing "pretty good," and so is the rest of the family. He said they haven't talked much about the reported incident, but it weighs heavily on his mind. He said he's grateful that N.C. Central has been so supportive, but he doesn't like how his daughter has been portrayed in the media. And he's especially frustrated that no one has been charged in the connection with the allegations.

"If it had been anybody but them, they would have been locked up, but yet they didn't because it's Duke," he said. "I hope them boys - if they did it - I hope they get what they deserve. I hope they don't go lenient on them."

District Attorney Michael Nifong said he's waiting for results of the DNA test and that he does not expect to file charges in the case any earlier than next week.

Having read all of these newspaper reports and a lot of the comments by other freepers, I'll my two cents.

It’s not completely inconceivable that three white Duke student lacrosse players brutally beat, strangled, raped and sodomized this black stripper, as claimed by her, while outside the bathroom door dozens of other students milled about drinking beer in the relatively small house (given the size of the party).

However, based on SirJohnBarleycorn’s many years of keen observation of human nature, I think what is more likely to have transpired is something along the lines of the following:

First, there was probably a collection taken among the party-throwers to come up with the money for the strippers and kegs. $400 for the strippers and probably another $300 for the kegs (and someone had to put down a kegs deposit). Perhaps the team leaders who lived in the house footed the bill disproportionately, but more likely they asked everyone to kick in a $20 as they arrived at the party if not beforehand. So, probably quite a few if not most people at the party had a financial interest in the evening, fueling expectations that the strippers would be a good show.

I doubt the strippers were there for very long. Since the neighbor said the two strippers drove off, the party dispersed and the police came by, all in the space of a few minutes, the strippers probably arrived around midnight or shortly thereafter. So the students probably spent a good two hours drinking beer and talking among themselves at the party, with no female students present on which to focus their attention, with the chief topics of conversation being making jokes about each other and speculating as to what will happen when the strippers arrive. It is therefore likely the students were fairly intoxicated by the time the strippers arrived.

Apparently the students ordered the strippers through an escort service and no one personally knew the strippers beforehand. These white kids undoubtedly expected to see slim white strippers with large implants, and were not very happy to find they were spending 4 bills on a couple of full-figured African-american ladies. Perhaps they had even explicitly asked for white strippers, but probably just assumed that’s what they would get. I submit that the ones that ordered the strippers would have only knowingly ordered black strippers as a joke, and that since that would have peeved many of the others who kicked in money for the strippers, I think that unlikely.

So probably an argument began as soon as the strippers arrived. The strippers were probably intoxicated or high when they arrived (according to the Kroger security guard, the stripper in the car was quite drunk or something similar, at about 1:22 am). The strippers, I would guess, demanded payment up front. Perhaps there was a split of opinion among the students, some saying not to pay them at all, others saying let’s see what they will do so the night is not a total waste. Perhaps the strippers made some comments about the students being racists, in that that they would take white strippers but not black strippers. Those students who said go ahead and pay the strippers and let them do their thing probably won out, and then the strippers started performing. However, since the night had already started out on an ugly note, things probably just degenerated from there, with racist comments being tossed out by a few of the spectators and probably some ugly things said by the strippers in return.

I would guess the strippers probably had just about enough and decided to leave after just a couple of dances. Perhaps some of the students then said, hey, give us our money back, and the strippers argued that they shouldn’t have to listen to racist jokes from the crowd. Perhaps they were convinced to continue for a little while longer, and then said enough is enough and tried to leave.

It is probably at this point that there was a physical altercation between one or more of the students and the stripper holding the money. These students demanded their money back and the strippers refused. The strippers and the students were both drunk; the stripper probably didn’t expect much physical fight from a bunch of white Duke students, and on the other hand lacrosse players seem to pride themselves on their aggressiveness not just on the field. This is probably the point at which the stripper suffered neck bruises and lost some of her artificial fingernails. Perhaps a couple of the students simply physically held her down and took the money from her, and kicked the two strippers out of the house. The police later found a stack of $20 bills in the house, but less than $400, so perhaps some of the students took their $20 back and others didn’t or had already left.

The two strippers quickly got into the car and drove away. At this point the neighbor heard a racist comment shouted toward the strippers by someone in the party. The neighbor said the party then dispersed quickly, which is not surprising once the strippers had left, since there were no female students there at the party. Everyone probably headed out to try to catch the tail end of other parties or hit a bar or grab some food.

The strippers were undoubtedly supremely pissed off at this time. This is when the stripper who was driving called 911 to complain about racist comments. The two strippers drove off immediately, but were sure to give the exact address three times to the police in hopes the cops would show up and at least harass the students.

The cops came within a few minutes, but already at that point there was nothing to see. The students had moved on to whatever their post-party plans were, and the strippers had driven away. In fact, it may well be that a number of the students had left earlier when it became apparent how lame the stripper show would be.

The strippers drove up Buchanan and turned left on Markham, driving on a couple miles until they came to a 24-hour supermarket that was open. As they drove, the strippers became more and more angry and determined to get their revenge on the students who physically assaulted them and took their money. The one stripper decided to claim rape, and perhaps had the marks from an earlier rough sex session with a customer, boyfriend or sex toy that might make it believable. Since they were drunk and driving, it would certainly not make sense to simply go to a police station. So, therefore the stop at the Kroger. In fact, the rape allegation may have been a spur-of-the-moment embellishment as an add-on to the physical assault and the robbery, and once the allegation was made, there was no turning back.

And so now perhaps we have a situation only a Tom Wolfe could properly describe, something of a cross between I am Charlotte Simmons and Bonfire of the Vanities, where loutish, drunk, racist, white mostly-northern lacrosse players with high SAT scores meet drunk (or high), stupid, vindictive, black stripper/”escorts” from the other side of the tracks, and a politically ambitious elected prosecutor seeks to ride the wave of race and class politics.

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.