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.
See the article cited in post 565 above:
But if the three lacrosse captains who occupy the house had anything to hide, they didn't act like it. They cooperated in the search and voluntarily went down to the police station to give statements, without lawyers present. Their offer to take a lie-detector test was rebuffed by police. No one accompanied her into the bathroom, the players told police.
The note seems sarcastic to me, not a real invitation. I can see the guys maybe assuming that, of course, a stripper would be willing to have sex with them. When she refused, or decided to leave early, I can see this guy getting physical with her. Talking about cutting off her skin makes me think the guy isn't too far from being quite violent.
What do you think of the coach's resignation? If he's been cooperative and not insistent upon his boys being totally innocent, wonderful kids (I haven't read too much about the coach's response), why would he resign?
I swear they should be selling tickets to this, wait they are... advertising and subscriptions... duh!
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NBC-17 learned Wednesday that the alleged victim was arrested five years ago on charges of larceny, drunken driving, resisting arrest and assaulting an officer. Police said she stole a customer's while performing as a dancer in a local club and tried to run over an officer who was pursuing her.
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http://www.nbc17.com/sports/8490327/detail.html
I wish some of these news websites had editors, a customer's what? Anyway, this is interesting, because they made it sound like she was new to stripping, but apparently she is not. It did seem odd to me that she was supposedly decided to take up stripping/escorting at age 27. Also, if she has a pattern of stealing from customers, it could validate the players' story (if the story was that she took the money and then left without performing).
This story gets messier each day on both sides. More and more it sounds as though some sort of altercation did happen, even if it was short of rape. That would explain why the players have been reluctant to talk: some of them may be guilty of some other criminal act, such as assault, even if there was no rape.
And SHE said prior to this that she had done only "one on ones."
The accused have been identified, why not the ID of the accuser at this stage?
I guess she may have a hard time getting a job once an employer runs her record.
Most people frown on trying to run down officers of the law.
Oh, because they can't do that, ya know?
The accuser in a rape case is never identified unless she or he permits it, it is standard media policy and in some jurisdictions, the law. Keep in mind, that women are actually raped; a victim should'nt be subject to harassment because she accused a popular person.
Isn't the practice of not identifying a "victim" the perogative/decision of a newspaper's editor?
Okay...but in cases of a false claim of rape, the accused characters' in the eyes of many will still be besmirched. "Where there's smoke, there's fire" will be continue to be voiced by some.
It sure is.
And notice that they buried this little fact about her WAY down in the article.
I would rather the media conceal the accused's name than print the accuser's name. Of course, part of concealing the accuser's name is based on the archaic notion than a virginal rape victim is forever "spoiled" by the attack.
(The player who sent the email is not one of the three players the woman accused of raping her.)
See post #634.
The money was all in $20 bills...typical denomination gotten at an ATM. If everyone at the party chipped in a twenty, then the number of attendees would have been 30....close to the estimates frequently given.
The team player whose room was searched had some "new" twenties. In Nifong's world that's prima facia "evidence". Crazy.
I suspect that this exotic dancer/escort was a low life trying to scam the students.
The more I learn about her, the more I tend to believe that she is a con artirt
From staff reports :
The Herald-Sun news@heraldsun.com Apr 5, 2006 : 2:39 pm ET
DURHAM -- Less than an hour after a stripper said she was gang-raped by Duke lacrosse players, a lacrosse team member allegedly said in an e-mail that he planned to kill strippers the following night in his dorm building.
Documents released today also show the Durham Police Department as of March 27 had added conspiracy to commit murder to the list of possible crimes it was investigating in the lacrosse case.
The e-mail allegedly sent by player Ryan McFadyen, said (the typographical errors are in the e-mail):
"To whom it may concern
"tommrow night, after tonights show, ive decided to have some strippers over to edens 2c. all are welcome.. however there will be no nudity. I plan on killing the bitches as soon as the walk in and proceding to cut their skin off..."
The e-mail was signed "41," which is McFadyen's jersey number.
The e-mail was allegedly sent at 1:58 a.m. on March 14 from the e-mail address ryan.mcfadyen@duke.edu. The alleged rape victim first contacted police at 1:22 a.m.
The existence of the e-mail was revealed in the Police Department's application for a warrant to search McFadyen's room in Edens Dormitory.
The warrant and the application had been sealed from public view by Superior Court Judge Ron Stephens. On Tuesday, an attorney for The Herald-Sun questioned both Stephens and Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Orlando F. Hudson about the sealed warrant. The Herald-Sun's attorney prepared a motion asking Hudson to unseal the warrant, which are normally public record in North Carolina, and was set to file the motion this morning. But Stephens, who acted on his own to seal the warrant initially, unsealed it this morning.
Asked for comment Wednesday, defense lawyer Bill Thomas -- who represents one of the lacrosse players, but not McFayden -- said that "this is a first-degree rape investigation. It is not about e-mails sent between college students that are in poor taste. This one e-mail, while it is certainly disturbing, is not a reflection that a crime occurred. It is clearly aimed at enflaming the community and has no relevance to the real issues."
Thomas said other e-mails among lacrosse players indicated a rape did not occur, but those communications were not included in police documents.
Police obtained the alleged e-mail from a confidential source, according to the search warrant application.
The inventory from the search, which took place March 27, shows police seized a piece of paper "with Ryan McFadyen email" in addition to memory cards, a laptop computer, an external hard drive, a disposable camera, a backpack, handwritten papers and drawings, and cash, among other items.
McFadyen, 19, is listed on lacrosse team's roster as a 6 foot 6 inch, 225-pound sophomore from Mendham, N.J.
At a press conference March 28 -- the day after the police said they obtained the e-mail -- Duke President Richard Brodhead announced he was suspending the lacrosse team's season.
At the press conference, Athletics Director Joe Alleva called the team as a whole, "really outstanding student athletes" who have a 100 percent graduation rate and are "wonderful young men."
"Unfortunately, sometimes young men have bad judgment," Alleva said.
The following day -- March 29 -- McFadyen was one of about 500 people who attended a Take Back the Night march during Sexual Assault Awareness Week at Duke.
"I completely support this event and this entire week," McFadyen was quoted in The Chronicle, Duke's student newspaper. "It's just sad that the allegations we are accused of happened to fall when they did."
Court records also show that the day after the search of McFadyen's room, Stephens signed an order for Duke University to give police additional details about the e-mail address of ryan.mcfadyen@duke.edu.
The search warrant unsealed today also shows police searched a white GMC Yukon SUV on the Duke campus. It had New Jersey plates and was located near Edens Dormitory.
The warrant lists the crimes being investigated as first degree forcible rape, first degree kidnapping, first degree forcible sexual offense, common law robbery, felonious strangulation and conspiracy to commit murder. Court records from March 23, just four days earlier, did not list conspiracy to commit murder as a crime under investigation.
No charges have been filed in the case. Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong has said he won't decide whether to press charges until next week at the earliest.
Police have said that Duke lacrosse team captains said only team members were at the March 13 party where the alleged rape, beating and robbery occurred. But police also say the players used numbers and fake names to hide their identities.
DNA tests taken from 46 of the 47 lacrosse team members could return from a state crime lab some time this week. The only player not tested is black. The alleged victim has said all the attackers were white.
Nifong has said he won't release the DNA results publicly. But defense attorneys, who say the results will clear their clients, said they'll release the test results.
Thomas, the defense attorney, reiterated previous assertions that no sexual assault took place, and that the Duke students would be vindicated through DNA testing.
"We'll await judgment until we get that DNA," he said.
"It's very important for everyone to remember that this is a rape case," Thomas added. "If a rape occurred as described by this woman, there will certainly be DNA evidence -- without question. Any suggestion that this incident could have occurred without producing DNA evidence is simply not accurate."
"Every one of these young men is looking forward to the test results so they can show that the allegations against them are false and without merit," said Thomas.
In his order today unsealing the warrant, Stephens , a former Durham District Attorney, wrote that he initially sealed it "to protect against the possibility of impeding and compromising an ongoing criminal investigation by the publication of sensitive investigative information at an early stage in the investigative process."
But now, Stephens wrote, "the need for continuing to seal this information no longer exists." He did not elaborate on what circumstances may have changed since March 27.
"To whom it may concern
"tommrow night, after tonights show, ive decided to have some strippers over to edens 2c. all are welcome.. however there will be no nudity. I plan on killing the bitches as soon as the walk in and proceding to cut their skin off..."
The e-mail was signed "41," which is McFadyen's jersey number.
Sick as it is, that HAS to be sarcastic as hell.
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