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

Knight Ridder Newspapers; WRAL; NBC17 | TONYA JAMESON

[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.

[RGSpincich]

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n17_v50/ai_21129275

snip

At Duke University last November(1997), a group of students hanged from a tree a black doll bearing a sign that read "Duke hasn't changed." They also covered with black paint the nearby Class of 1948 granite bench. The site of the mock lynching was the gathering place for members of the Black Student Alliance, who had been planning a protest outside the office of Duke President Nan Keohane.

The identities of the perpetrators -- evidently white racists --were unknown for nearly a week, and the campus reaction to the incident was one of horror and dismay. The Chronicle, Duke's student newspaper, published a letter from undergraduate Stephen Poon denouncing the episode as a "racial crime." Members of the BSA claimed that it showed how tense race relations were on campus.

Several days later the truth was out: the perpetrators were not racist whites, but blacks looking to create an impression of racism on campus. Instead of being condemned, the guilty parties were unconditionally defended by their ideological kin: "The idea behind the act," wrote Worokya Diomande in the Chronicle, "is being overlooked (as is usually the case). The University has not changed. Blacks are allowed to be enrolled here, but the idea is the equivalent of the transition from field slave to house slave."


More at link....

[ozzymandus]

If you were accused of a horrible crime, would you get a lawyer? I sure as hell would. I don't think I'd be taking any legal advice from sportscasters, either.

[GAgal]

This article from the college the accuser allegedly attends is very strange, if I am reading it right. The writer seems to be agonizing over damaging information about the accuser which she has learned. She is wrestling with her empathy for the young, black woman vs. her journalistic responsibility to report facts as they arise. Thus far the school paper hasn't printed what she's learned, but her final comments reflect her fear of what will happen if the truth is known:

"I have this sense of disaster." Bennett said. "I won't lie. If it does turn out that this is false ..." Tears hung in her dark eyes. The fan whirred overhead, and cars rushed past outside. "I don't even want to think about that."

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/04/04/Worldandnation/Separating_truth__con.shtml

[Howlin]

Thanks for the update; see #683 for some interesting reading.

[Howlin]

That is disturbing, in more ways than one.

They know something relevant to this case and they aren't going to tell it, IMO.

[luthers_inkwell]

Looks to me (just another local Durham resident) like we have:

1) a low life pros who figured she hit the motherlode when she performed for a bunch of rich white kids and something (no one knows what, yet) "happened."

2) a bunch of spoiled rich kids who are known to be obnoxious partyers. That neighborhood on Buchanan gets complaints for loud drunken melees frequently. Worse, when police show up, the kids often verbally abuse the cops with statements like "If I had dropped out of HS, I could probably be a Durham cop, too!" (that jewel was quoted in a local editorial recently). The relationship between the Durham cops and Duke students is one of hostile respect and contempt. Respect for the power each represents, and contempt for who they are.

3) Durham is an incredibly racially polarized town. There is a high percentage of black people here, and the leadership has shown itself willing and able to pull race baiting stunts that make Cynthia McKinney look like a piker.

4) Despite the influx of engineers, chemists, etc into this area, Durham's white power structure is still a blue collar ole boys network. The incessant playing of the race card provokes the worst in those people.

This kid making a crude joke is sensational, but I think it more likely just the normal depraved response of a priveleged kid with access to the normal sadistic mess on the internet (One will get you ten thousand that if they examine this guy's puter, they will find a mess of pornographic filth.) I know from experience that at Duke one learns that morals are anachronistic, truth is to be scorned, and virtue is repressive.

The ethics and the goals of the girl and the guys seem to be identical. Difference seems to be only background and privelege. That is the way I see it at present.

[Alia]

Sarcastic? Perhaps. My first thought on hearing all this on the news? Someone else wrote the email. Not the "owner" of the email account.

More and more.. the whole episode is sounding like one big fat "set-up" to me.

[Alia]

I really want to know who else was at that party. We know 3 players of the La Crosse team.. but who else? Was the stripper's boyfriend there?

But if indeed the email was written, heavy on the sarcasm, by one of the La Crosse players, this still does not at all explain who beat the stripper. If he, Ryan, had been the one beating her, hardly would he have written such an email: His email would have been triumphant; not heavy on the anger side.

His email comes across as being on the "losing" side of the arrangement that night -- that the stripper didn't deliver. That the planned event was a flop.

[Alia]

We're gonna have a race war right here in the Triangle.

Since I've moved here, I've witnessed the build-up for exactly something like this. There won't be a race war in the Triangle, I'm betting you.

Nope. Specific "leaders" of various "communities" will seize the stage to argue for 'PEACE'. The money and power negotiations will all go down behind the scenes. "It's always for the children". This is turning into a "truth to power" shakedown.

[Alia]

"Several days later the truth was out: the perpetrators were not racist whites, but blacks looking to create an impression of racism on campus. Instead of being condemned, the guilty parties were unconditionally defended by their ideological kin: "The idea behind the act," wrote Worokya Diomande in the Chronicle, "is being overlooked (as is usually the case). The University has not changed. Blacks are allowed to be enrolled here, but the idea is the equivalent of the transition from field slave to house slave."

Yep. A "shakedown" and using SOP Methods.

Swastikas on the lockers of black San Francisco Firemen. Big shakedown. Turns out the perps were black. When all was said and done, the black activists got their "quotas", and no real penalties to the "artists". Oh, yeah. A "truth to power" shakedown. One story out of a million of how the "shakedown" works.

[ken5050]

Is the coach who resigned also a prof at the school?

[Brytani]

Howlin,

What's the scoop on this e-mail the DA released?

[LWalk18]

I was a Duke student when that incident occurred, and it seemed obvious to me that the doll and sign were put up by some black activists- the phrase "Duke hasn't changed" was a dead giveaway. It surprised me that people thought otherwise.

[LWalk18]

Someone else wrote the email. Not the "owner" of the email account.

His lawyer already admitted that he wrote the email.

[twigs]

This email is very problematic, but I tend to agree with you now that I've thought about it. It's about revenge. Had he raped her, his revenge would have been done. This is from someone who is still incredibly angry and planning to exact revenge. Not the words of someone who had just gotten it. That said, he will wish this had never surfaced because I think in this atmosphere it will do more harm to him than good. It shows that he is capable of doing her harm. And worse, that he was planning to do it. It couldn't be called a momentary crime of passion (not refering to sex but murderous anger). Once he's exposed as possessing that kind of anger, it will be a smaller step to convicting him of it. In fact, he's already being convicted in the media. But he doesn't sound like the type of young man I would want my daughter to date.

[twigs]

I just don't get the cutting "their skin off." Is that an expression that's used today? I've never heard it and not sure I understand it (nor sure I want to). I just read here that this student is from NJ. So much about Southerners being the racists.

[TexKat]

This article from the college the accuser allegedly attends is very strange

Actually the article was not authored by a journalist from the college. The author is Vanessa Gezari who is a Foreign/National Correspondent for the St. Petersburg Times.

Vanessa Gezari has been a foreign and national correspondent at the St. Petersburg Times since June 2004. She came to the Times after nearly three years freelancing in New Delhi and Kabul, writing about politics, conflict and culture for the Chicago Tribune, The (Baltimore) Sun, Slate and others. In 2004, she trained Afghan journalists with the Institute for War and Peace Reporting. Before moving to South Asia, she was a one-year resident at the Chicago Tribune and a general assignment and city hall reporter at the Toledo Blade.

Google and check out some of her other works like:

http://www.freesamialarian.com/media/media89.htm

Growing up Al-Arian

Also Current Campus Echo Staff Members :

http://www.nccu.edu/campus/echo/staff.html

Shelbia Brown  Production Assistant 
Ihouma Ezeh  Staff Reporter 
Anisa Holmes  Staff Reporter 
Tiana Robinson  Staff Reporter 
Julius Jones  Staff Reporter 
Ebony McQueen  Staff Reporter 
Carolyn McGill Chief Copy Editor  
LaKela Atkinson  Copy Editor  
Greg Wilson  Copy Editor 
Brandon Murphey Cartoonist 
David Morris Cartoonist 
Sheena Johnson Alumna Advisor 
Mike Wiliams  Alumni Advisor 
Danny Hooley Alumni Advisor 
Samantha Draughan Business Operations 

Dr. Bruce dePyssler'dp' Faculty Adviser

[TexKat]

Duke President Promises Investigation

(snippet)Brodhead said McFadyen was the only player suspended so far, and that the man was removed from campus. He also said he has heard that other lacrosse team members have changed their places of residence for safety reasons.

Shortly after the e-mail's release, lacrosse coach Mike Pressler resigned, ending a 16-year tenure marked by three Atlantic Coast Conference championships and a trip to last year's national final.

Brodhead would not say whether Pressler's resignation was requested, saying only, "When it was offered, I thought it was highly appropriate."

[GAgal]

Kristiana Bennett doesn't appear on the Echo staff. Was the article an out-right fraud? If so, that is even stranger and totally irresponsible.

[katiebelle]

why? If they came together wouldn't it make sense that they left together?