Lawyer: Woman Came to Duke Party Injured

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) - Time-stamped photographs will show an exotic dancer was already injured and "very impaired" when she arrived at a party where she claims she was raped by members of Duke University's men's lacrosse team, an attorney for one of the players said Sunday.

Durham attorney Bill Thomas said some of the photographs, taken when she arrived at the house, indicate the woman was injured before getting to the party March 13. They show extensive bruises and scrapes on her legs, especially around the knees, he said.

"This young lady was substantially impaired. She had fallen several times during the course of the evening," Thomas said.

He declined to identify the player he represents and said he would not release the photos, taken by at least two cameras, until pending DNA tests are completed.

He also wouldn't say whether the photos were taken by a lacrosse team member or someone else; court documents have indicated that only team members were present at the party.

No one has been charged in the case, but the allegations that members of the nearly all-white team raped the woman, a black student at a nearby university, have rocked both Duke and Durham.

The allegations have led to the resignation of coach Mike Pressler, the cancellation of the lacrosse season and the suspension of one player from school.

Several dozen people gathered Sunday outside the house where the party took place, and pledged to return each Sunday until the case is resolved.

"Whether I want to believe it, or whether you want to believe it, something took place in there," said Johnny Williamson, 36, of Durham. "Something indecent took place."

District Attorney Mike Nifong, who was expected to return this week from an out-of-town conference and has not commented on the case in the past several days, has said previously he is confident a rape occurred. Court documents said a medical exam of the alleged victim found injuries consistent with sexual assault.

The victim has not returned repeated messages seeking comment, but her father said Sunday she hasn't changed her story.

"I expect them to say that," he said of the lawyers' contentions his daughter is lying.

The woman and the other dancer arrived separately, Thomas said, and performed briefly before leaving. The victim told police she and the other dancer left because they feared for their safety, but were later convinced to come back inside.

Thomas said the photos contradict the alleged victim's assertion she was scared, as they show her standing at the door of the off-campus house with "a major grin on her face" as she tried to get back inside.

"People inside the house have stated she was banging on the door, attempting to regain entry," Thomas said.

The woman told police she was pulled into a bathroom and assaulted after coming back into the house. But Thomas said the woman locked herself in the bathroom, where police later found her purse, cell phone, and several artificial fingernails she claimed to have lost during a struggle with her attackers.

Thomas said one of the attorneys representing team members had interviewed the other dancer extensively, and she said the alleged victim never told her about a rape.

"All of these statements you've heard ... about this brutal assault, rape, kidnapping and robbery which occurred, I believe that the public will soon be able to learn the truth, and that these allegations are totally false and without merit," Thomas said.

Both the team's captains and attorneys for team members have said the DNA tests, which may be completed this week, will prove the allegation are false. The players' attorneys also have raised other questions about the allegations, saying e-mails written in the hours after the alleged attack will help prove the players' claims that nothing happened that night.

Attorneys also have raised suspicions about a 911 call, made shortly after the alleged attack would have occurred, from a black woman who claimed someone at the party shouted racial slurs at her and a friend. The caller alternatively told police the pair were driving and walking past the house. Thomas said Sunday he and other attorneys believe the second dancer at the party made the call.

"These young men have been absolutely vilified in the press," Thomas said. "I think this week we will go a long ways toward clearing these young men's names. I can assure you that this has been a nightmare for each and every one of them."

Here's another question. If Kim and Mangum didn't know each other before that night, and there had been no prearrangement for Kim to drive Mangum home, why did Kim, knowing the night's work was over and being outside in her own car, and seeing Mangum go back into the house alone, and not knowing that Mangum was "in danger", and knowing that Mangum had alternate transportation home, why did Kim hang around outside in the car for 30 minutes waiting on Mangum? Because Mangum asked total-stranger Kim to? Why didn't Kim, who must have been impatient to leave, go get Mangum? Maybe Kim wasn't impatiently waiting in the car but doing something else she doesn't want to admit?

Okay, here's what they may have been doing together locked in the bathroom (besides drugs): They decided they were going to bolt the party. They then were on Mangum's cellphone trying to call her boyfriend. When Mangum couldn't reach him after calling several numbers, she made Kim promise to drive her somewhere until she could call him to come meet them and get her. They then emerged from the bathroom and bolted the party.

Based on what the defense is saying in the recent stories about the photos, it now seems that it may have been much shorter than 30 minutes between the time Mangum leaves the car to get her shoes, bangs on the door, passes out in the yard, and a lacrosse guy goes out and helps her back to the car. Could have been only 10-15 minutes.

In an earlier thread I had a question about the cars and how Mangum planned to get home. If Mangum and Kim arrived in separate cars 30 minutes apart, because they didn't know each other, how did Mangum plan to get home? It's been suggested Mangum was dropped off and was to call for a ride. That makes sense, but is a dumb plan for an experienced stripper to make. Mangum may be that dumb. OTOH, if Mangum arrived in her own car, she must have gone back the next day to get it, since Mangum's father reports that she brought her car home the next day saying she wasn't going to drive it for a while.

I was also thinking she probably drove, because her car was probably where she left her coat (she must have had something on over the see-through negligee when she arrived, and it was not in the house nor in Kim's car), but perhaps not. She may have been too drunk to drive. Her boyfriend may have dropped her off, and she was so drunk she left her coat in his car.

Would that arrest record have turned up any recent license suspensions? If she had had her license suspended and wasn't supposed to be driving, and knew she would be deaing with the police, perhaps she dropped the car off for that reason.

Former Duke Athletes Await More Details

Last Updated: 04-10-06 at 9:44AM

Elton Brand says he never felt racism at Duke. Neither did fellow black players Carlos Boozer or Daniel Ewing. And it wasn't just because they were stars on the wildly popular and successful basketball team.

"There are a lot of multicultural people at Duke, and everybody felt that way, not just the athletes," Brand said.

Allegations that three white members of the lacrosse team raped and racially insulted a black stripper hired to dance at a March 13 party have stunned the campus and the Durham community, sparking days of protests and rallies. Last week, Duke canceled the remainder of the lacrosse season and accepted the resignation of the team's coach.

The move came hours after the release of an e-mail sent by a team member that President Richard H. Brodhead called "sickening and repulsive." That night, Brodhead initiated a series of internal investigations into Duke's response to the allegations and into whether the school has fostered a culture of intolerance and elitism.

"My fiancee, Shahara, also went to Duke and she had friends there of all different races," said Brand, who now plays professionally for the Los Angeles Clippers. "She loved it there, too, and she didn't have a problem with racism, so this seems out of character."

More details of what happened might emerge soon. The results of DNA tests of 46 of the lacrosse team's 47 players _ since the alleged victim said her attackers were white, the team's lone black member was not tested _ could be completed any day. Prosecutors have yet to charge anyone in the case, but have said charges could be filed as early as this week.

"I've seen a couple things on TV about it," said Boozer, who now plays for the Utah Jazz. "When I was there, and it wasn't too long ago, the white students got along with us great. Everybody took care of each other on campus."

Among the issues the Brodhead's investigative panels will examine is the alleged use of racist language by members of the lacrosse team. Durham's population is equally divided between blacks and whites, but only 11 percent of Duke's 6,200 undergraduates are black _ although that figure has about doubled in the past two decades.

"From my experience, no, I didn't experience any racism," said Ewing, a rookie with the Clippers. "Everything was pretty good for me at Duke."

Monique Currie, who also is black and a star for coach Gail Goestenkors' women's basketball team, returned to Duke for a fifth season, leading the Blue Devils to the NCAA title game. Even an overtime loss to Maryland couldn't spoil Currie's memories of her years at Duke.

"The reporters asked me after the game, do I regret coming back, because we didn't win a national championship," she told a crowd of about 350 people at rally for the team. "I wouldn't rather be in another place, and I'm just still extremely happy I was able to come back and spend another year with all of you great people and all of my teammates.

"I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world."

Shavlik Randolph, a former player for the Blue Devils who is white, said he didn't really know any of the lacrosse players when he was in school. A native of Raleigh, N.C., about 30 miles from the Duke campus, he now plays for the Philadelphia 76ers and has kept in touch with friends still on campus.

Randolph was as surprised as anyone by the allegations.

"Every team has their wild guys who get rambunctious and crazy," he said. "I would have never expected anything like this to emerge. I think people are still trying to figure out exactly what happened."

It's certainly the talk of the lacrosse world. Larry Feldman, who played at Penn from 1960-64, is president of LaxPower.com, a Web site devoted to the sport, from the high school level to college.

A message forum on his site has gotten more than 1,000 posts on the situation at Duke, and they've been viewed by more than 20,000 people.

"The sport never gets much publicity, and now the sport is getting more publicity than it's gotten in 25 years," Feldman said. "And it's not going to help the sport."

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AP Sports Writers Jon Krawczynski in Minneapolis and Dan Gelston in Philadelphia contributed to this report, as did AP freelance writer Joe Resnick in Los Angeles.

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