Posted on 03/31/2006 8:03:52 PM PST by Howlin
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.
"(She) didn't tell us anything about it," he said.
He said he also found out through the media that his daughter, who is the youngest of three, was an exotic dancer.
"She always told me she was going to work," he said.
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.
I'm a Duke Alum. I went there for nine years. I had to graduate three times to get it right! My son is a senior in high school and a lacrosse player and we live in Raleigh, NC just down the road from Durham and Duke. Needless to say we've been following this case closely.
Any of you who thinks lacrosse is a sport for babies needs to think again. It's played with a solid hard rubber ball. My son, the h.s. player, can shoot the ball at 90 mph. And he's just a somewhat better than average player. All this while the opposing team is beating him with their sticks. Lacrosse playeers wear very little padding. He comes home black and blue from every game. For those of you that don't know the game, think of it as ice hockey without the ice. In fact the pro lacrosse league was started for hockey player to keep their skills during the off season. It's gotten to the point where to play basketball or football past high school you have to be freakishly large. Lacrosse is becoming more popular because it's a contact sport where a highly athletic kid of average size can compete successfully.
As far as Duke being a school for "rich kids", it's far more complex than that. Duke does its admissions on a "needs blind" basis. That means they don't even look at the financial info until they are done with the academic info. If you get in then they will look at the financial info and put together a financial aid package that they estimate will allow the applicant to attend. What ends up happening is that, yes, the wealthy families that can afford the full tuition without financial aid can send their kids there. Also, the least well off families who get a full free ride can send their kids there. However, those in the middle often find that they don't want to spend the share the university thinks they should spend and they don't send their kids there. The reason that the tuition is so high is that the people who can afford the full cost end up subsidizing the tuition for people who can't afford the full cost.
All that having been completed, if the rejected applicant is the child of a large alumni donor or someone wanted for a sports team then the application gets a second look. People don't like the large alumni donor part, but the chances are that the donor has already paid for the education of dozens of other people's kids and if their own child attends is likely to continue to do so in the future. You can gripe about favoritism all you want, but this gets into the school the maximum number of kids who would otherwise not be able to attend.
With regards to athletes, and the Duke lacrosse team, many of those players are not necessarily "rich". Some fraction of the team is on athletic scholarship, but not the whole team. Many of the others may be flipping burgers in the campus dining hall because "work study" is part of their financial aid package. So the "spoiled rich kid" thing may be true for some number of lacrosse players, and students in general, but this stereotype can not be applied across the board.
Smacks more of "reality" to me.
I'm positive that I read it in one of the articles that were posted here. I've gone back through every thread I can find and looked back at the linked articles and I can't find it now. All I can figure out is that some yo-yo told a reporter he was a student at the party and they found out later he wasn't and they revised the story. I'm sorry if I was passing on false info, but I know without a doubt that I read it in an article posted here.
My father was a police detective and he told me once that you can't even trust eye-witnesses who think they are telling you the truth. He said that a person's memory and perception of a situation or event is just about always clouded by some sort of bias.
"I think we need to be careful here and not name call. Let the process go forward. If the DA has no DNA match, he has no case."
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the victim herself is quoted as saying that in the past she only did "one-on-ones". the security guard at the store described behavior that sounded like she was very high.
i summarized these two things into saying she was "a prostitute high on drugs".
i'm not sure that is really name-calling.
the guys at the party were pretty drunk
therefore, i wouldn't believe the statements of anybody in the case (including the DA).
i agree with you that the case should be decided on the evidence. i'm just very sceptical about the statements of everybody involved.
that interview with the lawyers tends to support what you're saying.
they seem pretty certain that no sex occurred in the house, and that she really was there to dance.
in the interview, the lawyer seemed to say that all the people who had given dna were at the party.
do you know how many people gave dna?
after reading the interview with the lawyers, i agree that your scenario is a likely possibility.
i had assumed that the womem had engaged in sex at the party, but that may not be true.
http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/421799.html
"My father came to see me in the hospital," she said. "I knew if I didn't report it that he would have that hurt forever, knowing that someone hurt his baby and got away with it."
There appears to be a discrepancy in the story. Imagine that...
I remember one early story quoted the "neighbor" witness as stating that when the dancers left and went to their car that first time, that one player yelled: "I want my money back."
So it seems they did get paid.
I'll wait for the facts, Howlin. You indeed have lost credibility with me and I'm sure others that have followed this thread. It would be interesting to have the facts. You discount the 911 phone call, partially based on you repeatedly spreading the no house number theory. There is no house number now, but did the University remove the numbers for safety and public relation reasons, after the incident was reported?
Someone in this thread wrote that there were only 5 lacrosse players attending the party. The home was rented from the University that included the three lacrosse captains on the lease. The university released the men from their contract and allowed them to move out for safety reasons.
There are so much misinformation being passed around here. 45 college kids can easily party in a small house and not everyone would be able to tell you what happened or didn't happen in a small bathroom. I'll wait for the facts from all sides.
The house is off campus. I haven't seen where Duke University is the owner of this property. Where are you getting that information?
CALLER: I don't know if this is an emergency, but I'm in Durham and I was driving down near Duke's campus and it's me and my black girlfriend and the guy, there's like a white guy by the Duke wall and he just hollered out (BEEP) to me and I'm just so angry. I saw them all come out like a big frat house and me and my black girlfriend are walking by and they called us (BEEP). I'm not going to press the issue I guess, but I live in a neighborhood where they wrote KKK on the side of a white station wagon and that's near right where I'm at. They didn't harm me in any way, but I just feel so completely offended.
(END 911 CALL)
It seems odd that the call would end like that without any comment from the dispatcher, ie, "Thank you ma'am, have a nice day", or "Do you wish to file a complaint?" (unless they left the dispatcher's response out of the transcript). I'm wondering if she abruptly ended the call before the dispatcher could ask her any further questions.
The escort service she said she worked for (per the N&O article where the alleged victim was interviewed" was called "Allure". The News and Observer said that they could find not business papers on such a business.
That's my perception.
Thanks for that information
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