Posted on 05/03/2007 3:58:32 PM PDT by abb
In an upcoming book about the Duke lacrosse rape scandal, former coach Mike Pressler accuses university officials of caving to pressure from intense media scrutiny and protesters both within and outside of the school. Pressler says university officials initially promised to stand by his team following the party where Crystal Gail Mangum said she was gang raped in March 2006. Instead, Pressler said, he was forced to resign and university President Richard Brodhead suspended the season.
Those steps on April 5, 2006, helped harden public opinion that Mangum’s rape allegations were true almost a year before Attorney General Roy Cooper dismissed sex offense charges against three players, declared them innocent and described the escort service dancer as an unreliable witness.
In one passage, Pressler, now the head lacrosse coach at Bryant University in Smithfield, R.I., also rues the damage to his own reputation after 16 years as Duke’s coach: ‘“Until a year ago,” Mike Pressler lamented in early 2007, “if you looked my name up you found stories about good lacrosse. Now, if you Google the words ‘Mike Pressler,’ ‘Duke,’ and ‘rape’ you'll come up with more than one hundred thousand hits. Those stories will be out there forever.”’
Entitled “It’s Not About the Truth: The Untold Story of the Duke Lacrosse Case and the Lives It Shattered,” the book marks Pressler’s first extensive comments about the scandal and offers his account of the meetings between parents, team members and university officials that took place before his resignation. It is one of two books on the Duke lacrosse case that will go on sale June 12, with a third scheduled for release in September.
Written by Don Yaeger, the book is comprehensive overview of the case, quoting dozens of key characters in the real-life drama. It is not a first-person account by the former Duke lacrosse coach, who gets a partial credit under Yaeger’s name on the cover: “with Mike Pressler.”
In another passage, Pressler describes an early-morning meeting with Duke Athletic Director Joe Alleva, who tells the coach the team’s season will be canceled.
“ ‘...Joe, you told the players and the parents you believed their story, you believed in them, you believed that they were telling the truth.’ “Alleva look right at me and made the statement I’ll never forget as long as I live: ‘It’s not about the truth anymore,’ he said.”
Duke spokesman John Burness said today that Brodhead and other university officials did not succumb to public pressure.
“The university made its decisions at the time based on what it believed was in the best interest of the university and everyone involved,” he said. “We were relying on the legal system to ultimately get to the truth, and that’s what ultimately happened with the Attorney General’s actions.”
Staff writer Jim Nesbitt can be reached at (919) 829-8955 or jim.nesbitt@newsobserver.com.
Ping
The Duke “officials” are doing whatever they can to cover their a$$e$. I hope they fail.
Any of the "Gang of 88" resign in shame yet?
If only it were just Duke! Actually, it could have happened on any big campus--at least, any big campus where the lacrosse team has not been dropped because of Title IX regulations. "It's not about the truth anymore" could be the slogan for most American colleges today.
Wasn’t there an article in the last week about Duke enrollments dropping? And they were wondering why?
I look forward to a massive law suit from the coach against everyone involved in his taring and feathering.
The TV rights to this, if they could get it on TV, would be of incalculable worth, basically a legal equivalent of Victory at Sea i.e. begger than Prison Break, the Sopranos, or anything else of that sort.
I hope at least he is not stupid enough to believe them.
It's going to make Jaws look like Flipper. DUMC and Tara Levicy would be my candidates as the first point of attack.
If I were a DUMC spokesperson, I'd be starting my vacation - yesterday!
I don't know about that. I don't remember anybody with half a brain ever believing the tail for a moment.
This has the potential to become one of the most interesting shows any of us have ever seen and possibly the beginning of the end of leftwing domination of America's schools.
The only ones were the man haters & the race baiters. And I don’t believe even they actually believed it. It just suited their agenda.
A little under 2,000 years ago, a guy with governmental authority and weapons to enforce the law made the statement, “Truth. What is truth?” I believe our personal story, the story of the Duke Three, and the SECULAR story of a guy named Jesus of Nazareth are quite similar. When you sacrifice truth, you’ve sold your soul. It’s all downhill from there.
If I could address the L.E., the D.A. and the Judge in our case, I would say very honestly, “We have decided we will take our chances with any criminals. We are armed (I almost gasp when I type these words), we believe we have the wisdom to protect ourselves and our property. We know and abide by the law and live by the ten commandments, plus our Lord's and would show mercy and judgment before using force. With criminals, at least we would know what we would be up against. With you guys, (meaning the police and judicial system) — not so much.
When you give someone who is incompetent, cowardly and negligent a weapon and the authority of the state to use it, the net result is the same — innocent people get hurt.
There’s a guy named Pontius Pilot who has been vilified for 2,000 years and many people believe there was a special place in hell for him. Unless the police, school, judicial system makes a 180 degree turn around, I feel PP will be there to meet them when they cross over. Now, go home and think about what you have done.”
I’ll never get that chance, but if I every could, I would tell them what’s ahead of them — it’s the Christian thing to do.
It’s all come out in the wash - I absolutely agree many people were harmed because of a quick rush to judgment. That said - does Duke university have standards in place for it’s athletes? Like, university athletes caught drinking underage... Just a question. Please don’t kill me because I asked it.
One standard which definitely is in place is the absolute fiduciary responsibility which the university has to protect its own students to the extent possible. Printing up a wanted poster with names and images of all of those lax players and handing same over to the new black panther party and inviting them onto camput, presumably to hunt the lax players down like dogs and kill them, could not reasonably be construed as honoring that responsibility. Look for some BIG lawsuits in the near future.
I am betting the university will have their insurance carrier go to the Players and the Coaches with settlement contingent confidentiality offers.
Here is an 8 figure check just pretty please do not expose our Nazi Ivory Tower behavior. (/s)
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.