The Duke Rape: Men Are Bad; the Rich Are Bad; Lacrosse is Bad
Should the case of the stripper getting raped by members of Duke's Lacrosse team turn out to be without merit, then what are we supposed to do with all the material that has been written explaining why it happened? Some of it is destined to be forgotten, anyway, such as this comically semi-literate letter from a professor of English(!) at Duke. My favorite line: "Two weeks of silent protectionism left all of us vulnerably ignorant of the facts" - I had no idea Duke's administration were closet Buchannanites! - but you should read it and come up with your own favorites!
One of the more common themes is "Duke Rape Case Plays Easily to Stereotypes" which I find confusing because it wouldn't be such a big story if it was so stereotypical. But I guess the article contends that the peripheral issues - white privilege, black underclass - do fit stereotypes. But it seems more likely that this angle is little more than a clever way to write about a crime without having to seriously consider whether or not it actually occurred.
Now that the white/black and rich/poor and men/women angles have been pretty well played out, collegiate sports and even lacrosse itself are under suspicion, as this ABC article contends.
It is certainly believable that some drunk, rowdy guys raped a reluctant stripper in a bathroom in an off-campus house. But there are some red-flags in this case that I would think should keep the media from jumping to lustily into this feeding frenzy. The theft charge, for one - if you've forced a 'sex-worker' to provide services, would you really then steal from her - or even refuse to compensate her? Wouldn't even a 'privileged' lacrosse player think that might be a little reckless? Also, the defense seems really confident about the DNA tests - even granting that the rapists might have worn condoms, other trace DNA evidence seems likely - pubic hairs, or skin under those torn fingernails. And if they wore condoms, then there wouldn't be any semen to test, no? And then the whole sequence with the 9-1-1 phone call where a woman complained about racial epithets being spewed from the house seems awfully phony. Again, I'm not claiming they're innocent, but I'd think there's enough doubt here to at least chasten the press a little - yeah, I know, what world am I living in!
But what really ticks me off is when commentators characterize the team's silence as cowardly or as part of a tribe mentality. I heard one Fox News commentator railing about what kind of upbringing these boys had that they are not coming forward. Sorry - police and prosecutors are not to be trusted anymore. As a parent, it is your duty to impress upon your children that they should never talk to investigators without asking for a lawyer. Even 12 year old children are not protected against the ambitions of detectives and prosecutors. Never, ever, talk to an investigator without a lawyer present.
One of the more common themes is "Duke Rape Case Plays Easily to Stereotypes" which I find confusing because it wouldn't be such a big story if it was so stereotypical. But I guess the article contends that the peripheral issues - white privilege, black underclass - do fit stereotypes. But it seems more likely that this angle is little more than a clever way to write about a crime without having to seriously consider whether or not it actually occurred.
Now that the white/black and rich/poor and men/women angles have been pretty well played out, collegiate sports and even lacrosse itself are under suspicion, as this ABC article contends.
Critics of sports culture, such as Harvard Sociology Professor Jason Kaufman, believe [the team's] silence is emblematic of the culture of team sports, particularly at the college level. "Any sporting activity is an intense bonding experience. There is a whole social culture that is associated with the team, often based on gender," said Kaufman. "Male solidarity can be very productive on the sports field and very anti-social in campus life."Yeah, or maybe the guys are simply not guilty - hard to tell at this point, but we wouldn't want that to get in the way of some probing analysis!
It is certainly believable that some drunk, rowdy guys raped a reluctant stripper in a bathroom in an off-campus house. But there are some red-flags in this case that I would think should keep the media from jumping to lustily into this feeding frenzy. The theft charge, for one - if you've forced a 'sex-worker' to provide services, would you really then steal from her - or even refuse to compensate her? Wouldn't even a 'privileged' lacrosse player think that might be a little reckless? Also, the defense seems really confident about the DNA tests - even granting that the rapists might have worn condoms, other trace DNA evidence seems likely - pubic hairs, or skin under those torn fingernails. And if they wore condoms, then there wouldn't be any semen to test, no? And then the whole sequence with the 9-1-1 phone call where a woman complained about racial epithets being spewed from the house seems awfully phony. Again, I'm not claiming they're innocent, but I'd think there's enough doubt here to at least chasten the press a little - yeah, I know, what world am I living in!
But what really ticks me off is when commentators characterize the team's silence as cowardly or as part of a tribe mentality. I heard one Fox News commentator railing about what kind of upbringing these boys had that they are not coming forward. Sorry - police and prosecutors are not to be trusted anymore. As a parent, it is your duty to impress upon your children that they should never talk to investigators without asking for a lawyer. Even 12 year old children are not protected against the ambitions of detectives and prosecutors. Never, ever, talk to an investigator without a lawyer present.
posted by ziel | 4/05/2006 07:52:00 AM
41 Comments:
The Duke LX players do not need your support. Don't worry, Daddy's lawyer will handle it.
I'm not supporting them, I'm just getting a little annoyed with all the broad-brush moralizing going on in the press without even a hint that the story could be bogus to begin with.
Outside of the conservative blogosphere (but of course!) this allegation does not seem to have created any huge fuss. Mainstream media reports have been fairly restrained and there haven't been any major protest marches or other things of that ilk. A sign that our society has gotten more mature in dealing with potentially explosive issues? I sure hope so.
Peter
Iron Rails & Iron Weights
Rape with a condom...?
I have a hard enough time putting one on with a cooperative partner, but I am probably just clumsey.
Five guys in my dorm were accused of "raping" a girl, three had lawyers. Guess which three didn't get kicked out. The fact that the girl was a coke head and changed her story three times and the fact the guy who reported the incident reciently beat the shit out of his girlfriend didn't mean anything. As long as they have duke's lawyers these guys will be just fine.
That letter is hilarious.
"Young, white, violent, drunken men among us -- implicitly boasted by our athletic directors and administrators -- have injured lives. There is scarcely any shame more egregious than one that wraps itself in the pious sentimentalism of liberal rhetoric as though such a wrap really constituted moral and ethical action."
"The most deafening silence -- and, quite possibly, duplicity (which is to say, improbable denial) -- has marked, in fact, Duke's Department of Athletics"
"Where now is the commercial charisma of Coach K, who could certainly be out front condemning Duke athletes who call people out of their name from the precincts of university-owned housing?"
"We remember the very first day of our new President's administration -- how he and Coach K shared the media dais, and the basketball magnate was praised for his bold leadership. It all seems rather like an Indonesian shadow play at this moment of crisis."
The whole system sometimes all seems rather like an Indonesian shadow play at this moment of crisis (which is to say, crisis of moment), inscribed indubitably upon the tombstones in the graveyard where the victims of violent, white, male privilege do not rest peacefully, never to be visited by Coach K or the Duke sports magnates. My refrigerator sports a magnet, commerating the 1985 Chicago Bears who had a player called The Refrigerator. Yet most refrigerators are white, and have milk inside them which too is white: how many? Enough!
Carter - nice Grouchoesque addendum! It would be comforting to think that that letter were a hoax, but you couldn't make that up.
Should the case of the stripper
Er, wouldn't prostitute be a more appropriate label, since you aren't getting paid to be peecee?
For the naive, that's what escorts are.
The Duke LX players do not need your support. Don't worry, Daddy's lawyer will handle it.
Ehehehe, gotta clear the path to that escape hatch, eh?
Let's talk about the odds of a white-on-black gang rape, shall we? Anyone ever read The Color of Crime?
No protests?
"Following accusations that several Duke University lacrosse team members raped a dancer, a group of concerned Durham, N.C., residents staged a "wake-up call" today against sexual assault.
Standing in front of the house where the alleged assault occurred, the group beat and banged on pots and pans early this morning to protest the attack.
"
Let me tell you what makes me most angry. I used to be a pretty tolerant classically liberal person when I lived in Europe. I felt very bad for blacks in the US, victims of slavery and oppression. I didn’t have stereotypes.
After living here two years and following the news I have started to become a racist. Something I don’t like. Why can’t these people just get their act together? Contribute to society? And if their IQs are too low to contribute, and they have to largely live of welfare, affirmative action and other forms of subsidies from white, can they at least stop ruining life for the hand that feeds them? They are rude. They don’t tipp. They act badly and scream “racist” if someone points it out. And worst of all, they commit horrible amounts of crime, destroying large parts of this otherwise great country. And cheered by leftist idiots and the media they have don’t even have a clue about their own horrible behavior.
Where is the black community beating on pots and pans when 15000 white women get raped by blacks each year? Why no protests? Secretly I am sure many of them are happy about it, “getting back” at the whites.
Assuming that these guys are innocent because they are white (or rather, because their alleged victim is black; if she were also white I doubt this post would ever have been made) is as stupid as assuming the contrary. I know Ziel hasn't done this, but already some of the anonymous commenters have begone to do so. Why can't we shut up and wait for the facts to come out?
P.S. No one (that I know of) has questioned the authenticity of the "let's kill the strippers and skin them" e-mail. Even if these guys are not rapists, they are clearly pretty messed-up individuals.
Why am I having flashbacks to Tawana Brawley?
if she were also white I doubt this post would ever have been made
I'm not so sure - we might still have the men vs. women / rich v. poor crap - only the racial angle would be missing - and I think I would still be posting something similar. (The major difference is that the notorious letter, rather than being written by a semi-literate 'English' professor, would have been written by a literate but horrifically obnoxious feminist studies professor).
I appreciate your other points though. I don't really identify with these guys - athletes at top universities are at the far right end of the testoserone bell curve - and I'm sure that's double for LX - so like I said there could well be 3 rapists in their midst. But I am 100% certain that this case is a little more complicated than the official reports so far suggest.
Let me tell you what makes me most angry. I used to be a pretty tolerant classically liberal person when I lived in Europe. I felt very bad for blacks in the US, victims of slavery and oppression. I didn’t have stereotypes.
I doubt very much you didn't have stereotypes. Europeans in general hold Hollywood-spawned stereotypes of blacks. What you're experiencing is a replacement of false stereotypes with valid ones (i.e., stereotypes based on reality).
Stereotypes are not ipso facto injustices.
After living here two years and following the news I have started to become a racist. Something I don’t like.
Look, being a racist, as the term is defined in the popular sense, is essentially a moral duty. Since you've evinced a desire for reality over orthodox platitude, I'll help you along a bit (I've been reading about race in heavy doses for a few years now).
Why can’t these people just get their act together? Contribute to society? And if their IQs are too low to contribute, and they have to largely live of welfare, affirmative action and other forms of subsidies from white, can they at least stop ruining life for the hand that feeds them?
Low mean IQ isn't the only black "problem" (in quotes because it's a relative thing; black mean IQ is just fine from a black perspective); you also have the testosterone issue. Not only do blacks have higher mean testosterone levels, but they also have signigicantly higher mean levels of androgen-receptors (in a nutshell this means that blacks are more sensitive to their own testosterone in terms of phenotypical expression (aggression, confidence, extroversion) than other races - in short, they get a double-testosterone whammy). So, blacks are relatively unintelligent and relatively aggressive. That's a recipe for violent crime (short time horizons, one of many realities of black psychology, may or may not be a result of black IQ means...in any event they certainly don't help in this regad).
They are rude. They don’t tipp. They act badly and scream “racist” if someone points it out. And worst of all, they commit horrible amounts of crime, destroying large parts of this otherwise great country. And cheered by leftist idiots and the media they have don’t even have a clue about their own horrible behavior.
You've put your finger on it in the last sentence. I don't have to help you out after all, because you've got it. Blacks, dim to begin with, are sold a bill of goods.
Ever known a dim person to hesitate to place blame for his failure on another when encouraged to do so? Every person I know who insists on accepting responsibility for himself is of above-average intelligence.
Where is the black community beating on pots and pans when 15000 white women get raped by blacks each year? Why no protests? Secretly I am sure many of them are happy about it, “getting back” at the whites.
Blacks aren't naturally as bad as liberals have made them in America, at least that's my opinion. Just look at black behavior before the liberals got 'hold of them. Sure, they were still a problem from a white perspective, but they were far better-behaved when whites were willing to knock their heads together occasionally.
One thing I can add is that liberals have planted in black America's mind that the races are equal and that the differences in success are due to white malfeasance; wouldn't you be pissed if you were dim, confident, and aggressive and lots of smart white folks told you that all your problems were white in origin?
Even without this poison from the left, it's likely that blacks would resent whites for their greater success. That's human nature; less-able groups resent more-able groups. This is probably inversely proportional to mean IQ.
Assuming that these guys are innocent because they are white (or rather, because their alleged victim is black; if she were also white I doubt this post would ever have been made) is as stupid as assuming the contrary.
The story wouldn't exist if the woman was white - there'd be no black uproar (bereft of any finding of guilt).
I know Ziel hasn't done this, but already some of the anonymous commenters have begone to do so. Why can't we shut up and wait for the facts to come out?
I haven't assumed anything. What I've done is express my opinion of the odds.
White-on-black gang rape is statistically non-existent. We're talking about men from well-to-do families...not exactly textbook gang-rapists.
The alleged victim is racially aggrieved (and thus perhaps motivated to pull a Brawley (never mind that like Brawley, daddy didn't know what his little girl was up to in here, either)).
Whites are afraid of blacks and their group cohesion and their avid race-card-playing.
The players' lawyers have expressed the desire to make public the DNA test results, and the champion-of-blacks DA has expressed the opposite.
I wonder what the odds are in Vegas?
No one (that I know of) has questioned the authenticity of the "let's kill the strippers and skin them" e-mail. Even if these guys are not rapists, they are clearly pretty messed-up individuals.
Yeah, sarcasm is definitely a sign of pathology. Seriously, the email was inadvisable, but little worse.
P.S., do you have a link to the full text of the email? All I've seen so far is quotes from the mass media, who I trust about as far as I can hurl them.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Ziel, the semi-literate letter you mentioned - it is by a Black professor. :)
Ziel, the semi-literate letter you mentioned - it is by a Black professor. :)
yes, I was aware of that - I didn't think it needed to be spelled out - I am capable of self-restraint, you know.
A full text of the e-mail is not available, but the smokinggun.com has the 'original' snippet as quoted in the search warrant.
The most important, if not only important, question is, "Are these man rapists?" The race of the victim is not that important because just anyone morally capable of rape is morally capable of raping a person of either race. Since these men hired a black stripper/prostitute to begin with, they clearly don't have any kind of principled objection to interracial sex. So IF they are rapists, it's unlikely that they're only going to rape white women.
Typo alert: I meant "just about anyone," not "just anyone."
From http://www.crime.blogs.com
IT IS BUSH'S FAULT
Why is it I feel so guilty believing that a rape did not occur in the house at 610 N. Buchannon, the party house of the Duke Lacrosse team.
I mean am I confused or biased because I am Caucasian? Certainly that is a possibility, I am white, I did grow up in a predominantly white household. So am I a racist?
Is it because I come from a fairly privileged background, I attended private schools, my dad wore a tie to work, my mother however does scrub toilets as a care nurse for the terminally ill but she does so more for spiritual rewards rather than financial gain. But I am, at best, middle-class, I live paycheck to paycheck and have no idea how I am going to cover the spread come April 15th. So how can I be an elitist, a snob?
Could I somehow be a sexist? I am a male. I have in my time objectified women by thumbing through pages of Playboy magazine and have made disparaging remarks with my guy friends about a woman’s body. I have been to strip clubs, smoked cigars and spit, burped and scratched like a lot of guys.
But I have marched in more than one Take Back the Night demonstration, I have written editorials for the Wilmington Journal, an African American newspaper, attacking injustices and inequalities.
How could I be a racist, an elitist, and/or a sexist?
But as I work to investigate the alleged rape of a woman in Durham I find no sanctuary in my own understanding of what took place.
Friends of mine in the media look at me odd when I question the credibility of the accuser. Blogsites I post my opinion in have deleted my posts and many times removed my privileges without explanation. My last post simply gave a timeline of events and the forum was shut down.
Now this is not a conspiracy against the truth, or me but it is an indication as to either how far off base I am or how upsetting the possibility that this woman could be lying is.
Maybe it isn’t about race, or gender or class, maybe it is about how much people just hate Duke.
I never thought about that but it does make perfect sense. It reminds me of the hatred spilled over from the Clinton era.
People can become blinded by the truth, unintentionally. Hatred spilling into the decision making process.
So now I wonder how often this happens. Can it happen at work? Can a supervisor hate college-educated upstarts and set them up for failure? Can an educator have such hatred against the poor and needy that they label a child a trouble maker for failing to be able to perform at a level accustom to the teachers expectations of what a child should be like? Can this hatred effect justice in the courts? Jurist swayed by deeply rooted hatred? Illustrated so well in the popular play and movie, Twelve Angry Men.
People I am not saying that those affected with such hatred recognize it. In fact I doubt that those on the peripheral edge of their world are even aware of it. Good people know better than to admit hate. In fact they will cloak themselves with benevolent activities such as participation in church or community boards. They will argue to the death, in many cases, how right they are.
But we are all capable of being wrong, I worry all the time that I am wrong. I worry that I am wrong about the situation at Duke.
If I am wrong about wanting to know why this accuser’s accusations shouldn’t be questioned then am I wrong about other things? If so what other things am I wrong about?
I’m serious I place a lot of confidence in who I am based on what I believe. If I am not who I think I am then who am I? Who are you because if I don’t know who I am I certainly don’t know who you are.
See how confusing this is getting? See how important it is to have a belief, an opinion?
So maybe I am just overreacting, maybe all this is, is that people just hate Duke.
But wait… who is Duke?
Maybe this is about race, about class and about sex.
Duke is white, primarily children of the rich and powerful and we all know it is the rich and powerful that get all the women.
No wonder people hate Duke.
Duke is a metaphor of our present day conflicting consciousness of cultural debate. The out of control students represent the seed of liberal minded America’s Bush administration and the woman? A representative of any country our government has invaded and planted it’s “democratic” seed into forcefully.
So here we are, hating Duke. Hating our country.
I'd rather be wrong.
The most important, if not only important, question is, "Are these man rapists?" The race of the victim is not that important because just anyone morally capable of rape is morally capable of raping a person of either race. Since these men hired a black stripper/prostitute to begin with, they clearly don't have any kind of principled objection to interracial sex. So IF they are rapists, it's unlikely that they're only going to rape white women.
That's spurious logic. Rape!=sex. The statistics show clear trends:
Blacks are FAR more willing to rape whites than vice-versa.
Blacks are FAR more prone to rape, period.
In gang rape, these statistical trends are intensified. White-on-black gang rape is practically non-existent; not practically non-existent amongst well-to-do college students - practically non-existent period.
Again, I'm talking Vegas here - large bodies do occasionally impact the Earth, despite long odds.
The DNA tests have come back negative. More news:
The alleged victim was injured prior to showing up at che whitey's crib; the players took photos of her extensively bruised and abraded legs when she arrived.
She was drunk at the time of the alleged crime (at least she was according to the sista who phoned 911 about her, just after the alleged crime).
She was arrested in 2002 for stealing a taxi, leading police on a hot pursuit, and trying to run one over.
I'm guessing they're not taking any more bets on this one in Vegas.
More questions about the duke rape: It’s about time you consider she lied.
If these boys were so drunk and out of control with lust, why didn’t they ejaculate? Not even one ejaculated?
If condoms were used, where are they? Where’s the empty box? Where are the wrappers? If these boys didn’t clean up the nails, why would they dispose of the condom wrappers? Where is the spermicidal lubricant?
If the stripper was violated by three men, then where is her DNA? Why isn’t there vaginal fluid on the bathroom rug? If she was “dry” where is her urine and blood? She claimed to have been anally assaulted, then where is her fecal material or scat smears? If she was violently orally penetrated, then where is her saliva and tears? Are people claiming that this woman, in complete panic, was capable of inhuman vaginal and anal sphincter control that no fluids dripped out because she made sure to lick up and swallow all of her saliva, “precum”, and ejaculate? If the boys cleaned up all of her vaginal fluids, blood, saliva, urine, and tears, then why didn’t they get rid of the nails?
**** Why did she go to her former attorney for advice, when the DA publicly and adamantly believes and supports her claim? Why would a poor working mother of two pay to seek her own legal advice, when the DA is free?!!! ***
The forensic nurse said that she had injuries consistent to her story, which means that she recently had sex, but there’s no way a nurse would be able to determine when or if the sex was consensual or not, there is normal bruising with consensual sex.
Why wasn't there skin, fibers, or hair under the stripper's fake nails?
If she lied about the bruises on her body and how she got them, and she lied to her family about her being a stripper, could she be lying about the rape? alibi was one of the excuses to make a false claim. Was the stripper on probation? Would her probation be revoked if she was arrested for public intoxication and under the influence of drugs when police was called to the store parking lot because she wouldn’t get out of the car? How long is someone on probation for larceny and evading police?
If the second stripper didn’t her anything, why is the DA claiming that the “drunken frat boys” heard anything? If the crime didn’t happen, how could they hear anything?
Why are people willing to look at the arrest record of 15 members of the entire 47 member team for reasons why they might have done something, but not into the stripper's arrest record for reasons why she made up the story.
The 911 caller about racial remarks identified a different house number, why is it being made to sound that it came from the lacrosse boys' house?
FBI 8% false claims of rape is derived from cases that were admitted to be false by the person making the claim, the percentage of false claims are closer to 30%. Between 1980 to 2000 33% of "convicted" rapist were found to be the wrong person identified by the "victim". How does this fit into the 8% or 2% figure of false accusations?
District Attorney Mike Nifong fueled the fires which tore the Durham community apart. The Duke lacrosse team claimed that no crime was committed, pictures prove the stripper was bruised before arriving at the party, the second stripper’s story coincided with the boys’ account of events, yet Nifong led a pack of wolves straight to the Duke campus to destroy these boys.
Although DNA voluntarily given by the lacrosse team doesn’t match any DNA found on the stripper’s body or clothes, gang threats against white students have already resulted and racial divides are even more polarized than ever before. Nifong’s desire for the spotlight will ripple through the community for years to come. District Attorney Mike Nifong should resign.
Wow - you should be making closing arguments for a living (maybe you do?)
Betty Friedan - why am I an ass? Unless you know me, you have no right to make that claim.
District Attorney Mike Nifong is a disgrace to his job:
1) :)A responsible DA would have stated at the beginning that “there is an investigation, and we don’t have enough to make a statement right now. I’m responsible not only to the accuser, but to the accused. Please wait and let our investigators do their jobs”, but Mr. Mike “all-of-these-privileged-white-boys-are-rapists” Nifong at the beginning of the investigation he will prove the entire lacrosse team is guilty for aiding and abetting a gang rape inside a small enclosed bathroom. Nifong stirred up racial woes and put the lives of Duke and Durham at risk for gang threats and the racist groups like NAACP and the New Black Panthers. Nifong encouraged sexists groups to paste these boys pictures with hate slogans all over their school. Daily hate protests by women’s groups claiming these boys are rapists.
2) :oDA Mike Nifong L-)cares nothing of guilt, innocence, or destroying innocent boys’ lives.
a. :-w The first batch of DNA came back with conclusive for no match to any of the lacrosse boys.
b. /:)The crime scene was completely void of any DNA evidence of any gang rape.
c. @-)The boy’s that Nifong charged has an air-tight alibi and wasn’t at the party at the time the stripper claimed a rape occurred, and he refused to see this evidence before destroying his life.
d. :-?The second batch of DNA came back with no conclusive match to any of the lacrosse boys.
e. :-w DNA couldn’t rule out partial material found on top of a fake finger nail, inside a waste basket full of DNA material from the boys who lived in that house.
f. /:)The third boy indicted went down to the police department for questioning without counsel, helped with the investigation by identifying all the other boys at the party, offered to take a lie detector test, willingly volunteered a DNA sample, and past a lie detector given by a top senior experienced FBI agent. The stripper said is 90% sure if he had his mustache, but he has never had a mustache, which makes it 0% sure. DA Mike Nifong refused to see this evidence and instead decided to destroy another innocent boy’s life.
g. :-w The stripper’s body was completely void of any sign of a sexual assault (except for signs of recent vaginal and anal from her boyfriend). The alleged crime scene was completely devoid of DNA. It is impossible that a crime scene with three drunk men in a small enclosed room with a fighting and clawing woman being orally, virginally, and anally penetrated not leave any DNA evidence of urine, blood, vaginal fluid, sweat, fecal matter, scat smears, saliva, tears, or semen... especially if condoms were used. How would they take off the condoms during all this chaos without spilling, smearing, or touching the content inside or outside of the condom?
3) :-bInvestigator Mark Furman reviewed the lie detector test completed by the FBI on the 3rd boy unfairly indicted for a rape that never occurred. Mr. Furman stated that the boy not only passed the lie detector test, he passed with flying colors, but even without the test, this boy’s resume of helping the police with the investigation is impeccable.
4) L-)DA Mike Nifong stated that all of these boys are hiding the truth and covering up for one anther. Nifong claims the boys are “stone walling”, but when the accusation was made, the police questioned the three boys who lived in the house for over six hours, not one asked for a lawyer. When the entire team was told they had to submit DNA samples, they didn’t call their parents or fight the warrant. The boys cooperated completely. These aren’t the actions of guilty boys. Only when their parents witnessed the circus-like atmosphere created by District Attorney Mike Nifong, the boys were advised to remain quiet.
5) :o)DA Mike Nifong gave the second stripper a deal to change her story to support the false accusation of rape, and he wouldn’t revoke her probation from a previous conviction of embezzling $25,000 from her empolyer.
L-)Mike Nifong got re elected by pandering to black voters more interested in convicting white boys than guilt or innocence.
Well ziel I really can't explain it, you just give off this "ass" aura. Take it as the complement I meant it to be.
Lawyers are waiting in the shadows for lucrative civil suit
A man stands in the shadows of the Duke Lacrosse 'rape' case…watching and waiting. While the three wealthy, white male students remains in criminal court, he is not likely to step forward.
Even at this early stage, the stripper’s mother is "very much interested" in "getting Willie E. Gary is a litigator renowned for winning huge settlements.
The stripper’s parents met with Gary in April. The meeting was facilitated by civil rights activist Rev. Jesse Jackson.
Gary acts as a family adviser, and the parents are laying groundwork to make a civil bid. Public opinion can be a large bargaining chip in obtaining a lucrative settlement. Earlier, the parents spoke freely; now they’re being more media savvy.
Essence Magazine featured three articles by Kristal Brent Zook. Each is sympathetic to the accuser. (1st) "Family Defends Daughter's Painful Past", (2nd) "Nowhere to Turn," depicts the accuser as living in terror. (3rd) is basically an announcement of Willie Gary's appearance in the case; it concludes by stating that the parents "worry that their daughter may…need additional legal guidance."
Civil law deals in torts or harms inflicted by one person upon another; its purposes are compensation for actual or perceived damages.
A "guilty" verdict in criminal court can be used to establish liability in a civil one but if the verdict is "not guilty" or the charges are dropped, a civil case can proceed independently.
Kobe Bryant settled out-of-court settlement. Such settlements are not necessarily admissions of guilt. After months of media blitz, Bryant may have been embarrassed to settle, so civil suits could be lucrative even if the “accuser’s” claim is completely fabricated. The Duke students will face the same choice?
Civil suits can be lucrative, and they’re easier to win; standards of evidence and other legal protections enjoyed by a defendant are significantly lowered in civil court.
Clearly, her parents wish to explore a civil proceeding. Gary is conspicuously available.
Comparing LAX case to that of Scottsboro Nine
I am a college instructor who teaches criminal justice and a criminal defense attorney. In my entire career I have never seen such a bizarre and unfair case as the one against three Duke lacrosse players.
I teach a class about a similar case in American history, the Scottsboro Nine. In March 1931, a group of nine black teen-agers was charged with rape on incredibly flimsy evidence in Scottsboro, Ala. The nine were originally charged with the rape of two white women. Even after one woman testified that she lied about the rape, the nine teens continued to face rape charges and the threat of death by execution.
In the Scottsboro case, the two women were part-time prostitutes, but that didn't matter, nor did it matter that at least one of the boys was known to be physically unable to have sex, and two of the boys were only 13. Like Durham, the real issue was race.
In Scottsboro, nine young men were wrongly charged and condemned because they were black, and today the Duke lacrosse players have, in my opinion, been wrongly charged and condemned because they are white and the alleged victim is black.
The one constant with respect to the two cases is racism. I often ask my students if it possible for blacks to discriminate against whites in the same type of mindless ignorance as the KKK or the way the mob went after the Scottsboro Nine. The answer I receive is yes, and my students point to Durham as proof.
JOSEPH R. GUTHEINZ JR
Houston
May 20, 2006
Evidence in the records released by the DA:
When investigators questioned the stripper after DNA tests on the semen found inside her vagina and rectum didn’t match any of the Duke players, the stripper admitted to having had sex with at least three men around the time of the alleged rape. The stripper named her boyfriend and two men who drove her to Duke.
• When questioned, the “drivers” said they would drop her off at several places, including hotel rooms.
It's a bad sign of the times for women and feminists that the victim's credibility is first questioned, THEN the accused rapists. There's lots of ways of sexually abusing someone and not leaving any semen behind.
And what if this was a white stripper and the young men were black? What a difference the whole media twist on this would be, no? CindysWatch.blogspot.com
C.L. - No, the questioning of the victim's credibility did not happen first - it only happened after a few weeks had passed.
As far as "what if this was a white stripper and the young men were black?" In that case none of us would have ever heard about it. Black-on-white gang rape is very common, while white-on-black rape - even single rapist cases - is exceedingly rare. There are 15000 black-on-white rapes each year, and a few hundred white-on-black. So you're right - it would have made all the difference in how the media would have treated it - they would have completely ignored it.
Blind to evidence
On Monday, May 15, a Durham County grand jury handed up a third indictment in the nothing-short-of-notorious Duke rape case. This latest indictment charges the lacrosse team's captain, David Evans, with first-degree rape, first-degree sexual assault, and first-degree kidnapping.
The charges against Evans are identical to those handed up last month against fellow players Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty. Still, this final indictment does come as a bit of surprise. As I detailed in a prior column, the cases against Seligmann and Finnerty appear quite weak. As I'll discuss in this column, the case against Evans may be even shakier. It's true that the grand jury did return indictments against Evans, and previously against the other two. It's also true that the District Attorney, Mike Nifong, is forging ahead -- seemingly undeterred.
But Nifong's judgment has been poor all along- and the old adage that a D.A. can get a grand jury to "indict a ham sandwich" shouldn't be forgotten. Without defense attorneys there to test the prosecutor's evidence via the invaluable process of cross-examination, weak evidence can be made to look pretty convincing. It's not the grand jury's fault; it's just the reality that if you only hear one side, you tend to believe it.
At least a ham sandwich has some weight to it. As I'll explain in this column, the Evans indictment - like the two that preceded it - does not. The very evidence that may have convinced the grand jury - accuser identification and new DNA evidence - is just the kind that will ultimately fall apart when defense attorneys finally do get to cross-examine the witnesses presenting it.
The Mounting Evidence in Favor of Defendants' Innocence
All three defendants in the Duke lacrosse case have unfailingly and repeatedly proclaimed their innocence - Evans doing so most eloquently, on behalf of all three men, in a brief public comment following his being formally charged.
In fact, in a highly unusual move, newly indicted defendant Evans went to so far as to volunteer to take a lie detector test at the direction of law enforcement. When the D.A. refused, Evans enlisted a top polygrapher to administer the test anyway. He passed.
Thus far, the defense camp has come forward with a host of seemingly reliable, exculpatory evidence -evidence that will be admissible in court, and that is likely to sway a jury. I'm not talking about, maybe, kinda, sorta, or could be, exculpatory evidence either. I'm talking about weighty evidence - receipts, photos, phone records, alibi witnesses, an absence of DNA, and now actual DNA - that directly supports the defendants' claims of innocence.
A plethora of proof supporting a defendant's claim of innocence - not just the government's failure to carry its burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt -- is a rare pearl in the practice of criminal defense. It should cause the D.A. to reassess his case.
The Problems with the Accuser's "Identification" of Evans
In my prior columns, I discussed the problems with evidence against Seligmann - who has strong evidence supporting an alibi - and, to a lesser extent, against Finnerty. The evidence against Evans is also weak, maybe even more so.
Evans reportedly was not initially indicted, with the other two, because the accuser couldn't identify him with certainty (only with "90 percent certainty," in her words) from a photo lineup. Ten percent doubt sounds like a lot like reasonable doubt to me - and perhaps, at least initially, it sounded that way to D.A. Nifong too. And if the accuser herself has reasonable doubt, how can a prosecution go forward?
The accuser's lack of certainty is even more worrisome in light of the fact that the photo lineup was grossly biased. It included only Duke lacrosse players - meaning that the accuser had no choice but to select a Duke lacrosse player if she were to select anyone at all. And this photo lineup was apparently the sole means of identification for all three defendants.
Finally, and perhaps most disturbingly, the accuser is reported to have said that Evans's photo "looks just like [one of my assailants] without the mustache." According to Evans's defense lawyer, Evans has never worn a mustache. And party photos support this contention.
For all these reasons, the accuser's identification testimony is likely to be destroyed upon cross-examination.
The Problems with the New DNA Evidence
Besides the accuser's testimony, prosecutors also presented to the grand jury the results of a second round of DNA testing.
Readers may recall that the first round of DNA testing was, if anything, exculpatory: There was no DNA match whatsoever linking any of the forty-six lacrosse players whose DNA was taken, to the accuser.
Following those results, D.A. Nifong reportedly hired a private lab to re-test certain samples. In so doing, the new lab found a possible connection between defendant Evans and the accuser's discarded fake fingernail, found in the trash bin inside the bathroom.
To begin, it's awfully odd that the fake fingernail found its way into the trash bin in the first place, if a rape really occurred, and if the fake fingernail broke off during the victim's struggle, as she claims. No victim would clean up after her accusers; she would flee the scene. And if a culprit had the presence of mind to clean up -- realizing that the fake fingernail might be evidence against him -- surely he wouldn't just drop it in the trash can in the very room where the rape occurred, for police to easily find.
Significantly, too, defense attorneys claim the DNA material was found on the front of the nail -- not on the underside, where it would logically have lodged had the accuser scratched and clawed at her attackers as she claims.
But even putting these points aside, the DNA connection to Evans is weak. To begin, this isn't remotely close to the kind of "match" you may be familiar with from CSI - the kind where the odds of a false positive are infinitesimally small.
Indeed, "match" here is a misnomer. All that can be said is that the DNA is "consistent" with DNA voluntarily supplied early on by Evans.
Shocking? Hardly. Evans lived in the house, and therefore may have, from time to time, blown his nose, swabbed an ear, or otherwise disposed of DNA-laden waste into that very trashcan.
Moreover, it was reportedly Evans himself who fished the fake nail from the garbage, voluntarily handing it over to police and maybe, just maybe, shedding some skin cells in the process.
As for direct evidence of sex, there is none; none from any of the forty lacrosse players, that is.
While the second round of DNA testing proved that semen was found inside the accusers vaginal cavity, spokespersons close to the defense are confident the source of the semen is the accuser's own boyfriend.
In sum, after cross-examination, there is little, if any, chance that a jury will give weight to this DNA evidence. It clashes with the accuser's own story, and it's as fully consistent with Evans's innocence as it is with his guilt.
The D.A.'s Unusual Hostility to Even Viewing Defense Evidence
Defense lawyers have repeatedly implored District Attorney Nifong to meet with them and to examine the evidence that favors the defendants. But Nifong has said no - with an attitude that boils down to, "Talk to the hand."
That's unusual. More often than not, prosecutors are quite open to exchanging - or at least being entertained by - the defense's evidence. After all, it provides them with a valuable preview of what the defense's case may ultimately look like in court. Prosecutors are legally required to turn over certain evidence to the defense, but no obligation runs the other way. And since the defense goes second, prosecutors may not be able to effectively counter defense "surprises."
For prosecutors, meeting with the defense is thus typically a win-win situation: If they are convinced to drop the case, then that's embarrassing - but far less than as a loss at trial would have been. If they aren't convinced to drop the case, they've gotten a precious new edge at trial. And either way, both the reality and appearance of fairness to the defendants are enhanced.
Giving a defendant a lie detector test, in contrast, isn't a win-win situation: It may hurt prosecutors' case if the results are released to the public. (Lie detector results are rarely - if ever - admissible in court.) But at the same time, a lie detector test - while risky, and far from perfect - is likely to get prosecutors closer to the truth, which is supposed to be what they are after.
As noted above, in this case, Evans claims Nifong refused to give Evans a lie detector test. (He ultimately took one himself, and passed.) In my professional experience, a prosecutor's refusing to administer a lie detector test to a defendant is nearly unheard-of. The defendant's answers - and the lie detector's response to them - may provide the prosecutor with a road map to what his vulnerabilities on the stand may be.
Just as meeting with the defense previews the defense case for prosecutors, administering a lie detector can preview the defendant's testimony, as well as his on-the-stand demeanor, showing prosecutors what kind of a witness he will be. (Confident? Nervous? Shifty? Solid?)
I can't help but believe that, were any of these defendants to assert that they had proof that a crime was indeed committed, this district attorney would be all ears. Suppose, for instance, that Seligmann or Evans were to turn on Finnerty, to try to save themselves - surely Nifong would happily hear them out. So how can the prosecutor justify, then, turning a blind eye to evidence of any of the accused's innocence?
If There's A Card Up the D.A.'s Sleeve, the Law Requires Him to Play It Soon
Some pundits have suggested that the only explanation for the District Attorney's pressing on in the light of strong evidence that the defendants are innocent, is that he has a card up his sleeve. If so, then he needs to show that card, pronto.
The discovery statutes in North Carolina - as in most states - do not allow prosecutors to play "hide the ball." This is a judicial proceeding, not a magic show. So D.A. Nifong will have to reveal this evidence sometime before trial.
He ought to opt to reveal it right now - to give the defense a chance to counter it. When evidence suggesting innocence is as strong as it is in this case, it's wrong to just let the case go to trial and "see what the jury says." These three young men's live will be forever affected, even if they are acquitted. Even an arrest leaves a scar; the scar of trial is far deeper.
D.A. Nifong should listen to the defense, and should drop the case unless he has strong evidence supporting the accuser. Moreover, if he does have such evidence, he should show it to us now. The defendants have been forthcoming - especially Evans, who volunteered to, and then did, take a lie detector test. The prosecution should follow their example.
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"Even if these guys are not rapists, they are clearly pretty messed-up individuals."
Clearly I was wrong here. Although it became clear to me that the players were innocent just days after this post, I had let myself be partially taken in by the media hype in first few days after the accusation, and since there is a record of my mistake I wanted to make a record of apology on the same thread.
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