Duke Lacrosse
DURHAM, N.C. -- The faces peer from neat rows on the legal-size leaflets posted throughout the quad. All white. All male. All members of the Duke University lacrosse team.
Above the faces is a simple plea: "PLEASE COME FORWARD."
A day after Duke President Richard Brodhead suspended the schedule of the nationally ranked Blue Devils lacrosse team until allegations of sexual assault are resolved, no one had answered that call. No witness had stepped forward. The faces on the poster remained a symbol of the confluence of race, class, privilege and gender that has roiled the campus and community in a perfect storm of controversy and scandal.
Dinushika Mohottige was one of the Duke students posting the leaflets -- grassroots activism courtesy of the school's Progressive Alliance -- before Wednesday evening's "Take Back The Night" march across campus, part of Duke's observance of National Sexual Assault Awareness Week.
"I'm so outraged by how heinous the crime was," said Mohottige, a Florida-born woman of Sri Lankan descent. "But more than that, it's the lack of compassion the lacrosse team has shown for the victim.
"I'm sure this incident will bring to light a lot of the privilege issues that exist on this campus. This story is a wake-up call for the university."
Her anger was shared by Betty Greene, a 10-year Durham resident.
"I was appalled," said Greene. "It was just shocking. I'm a woman and a black woman. Every woman needs to be angry about this. Every man and every child. Duke is trying to hide this and they're not going to get away with it."
All day Wednesday, television satellite trucks were parked along Chapel Drive as the media descended upon Duke in an attempt to learn what actually happened at an off-campus lacrosse team party on March 13.
The alleged incident has ignited passion on campus and in the community like few stories in recent memory.
At the news conference in which he suspended the team's season indefinitely, Brodhead said, "In this painful period of uncertainty, it is clear to me, as it was to the players, that it would be inappropriate to resume the normal schedule of play. Sports have their time and place, but when issues of this gravity are in question, it is not the time to be playing games."
But even as the Duke women's basketball team continues to play games, advancing to the Final Four with a thrilling overtime victory over the University of Connecticut on Tuesday night, it was the men's lacrosse team that dominated local headlines and informal discussion on campus.
They tell Duke kids, 'Don't go into the big, bad Durham community.' Well, now they can get violated right here on campus. The administration does well to take a position that protects the rights of the young men. They've done a poor job at articulating the rights of those who feel violated and threatened by their behavior."
According to police and published accounts, this much is known:
The party occurred at 610 North Buchanan Boulevard in a house leased by three members of the lacrosse team, and was attended by as many as 40 lacrosse players. Alcohol was present. While some upperclassmen at the party were of legal drinking age, many of those in attendance were not. The services of two exotic dancers were secured through an escort service. One of the dancers, a black single mother of two and a student at nearby North Carolina Central University, claims she was held down, beaten, strangled and raped by three men.
To date, the Durham Police Department has not filed any charges in the case. But District Attorney Mike Nifong told MSNBC on Tuesday that he is convinced a sexual assault occurred.
"The behavior was bad behavior, boorish behavior," Brodhead said about the party in a Tuesday night news conference. "But from there to what is alleged is a very serious step."
The players, according to police, have not been cooperative in the investigation. The school has not undertaken its own investigation of the incident, instead deferring to the Durham Police Department, a decision that has sparked widespread criticism.
Two lacrosse games -- against North Carolina and Cornell -- were played after news of the incident surfaced. Duke officials decided Saturday, 12 days after the party, to forfeit games against Georgetown and Mount St. Mary's. The team now faces the real prospect that its 6-2 season might be over.
The charged situation has inspired several campus demonstrations over the last five days. Sunday, one night after a candlelight vigil, protestors banged on pots and pans and chanted outside the house where the party occurred. Another demonstration, scheduled for this past Saturday at Koskinen Stadium, was canceled when the Georgetown game was called off.
Earlier Wednesday, Brodhead met with about 100 students at the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture.
"That students got up at 8:30 in the morning shows you the level of concern," said Chandra Y. Guinn, the center's director. "The allegations are extremely serious and there are implications for various aspects of university policy, student life and campus culture.
"We are an educational community, and I think there needs to be educational intervention here. The issue wasn't resolved by a single meeting. There need to be many, many more conversations on this subject."
The Raleigh News & Observer published a story on Tuesday that revealed about a third of the Duke lacrosse team -- 15 players in all -- had faced previous charges that include underage alcohol possession, loud noise and public urination. Most of those charges, the story said, were resolved in deals with prosecutors that allowed the players to avoid criminal convictions. The story named names and served to galvanize critics who believe that athletes sometimes seem to function beyond the rules.
In 911 tapes released Tuesday by the Durham Police Department, a female caller reported that as she walked past the house where the party occurred on the night of the alleged attack, a white man yelled racial slurs at her and a black friend from the front yard. The alleged rape victim identified her attackers as white men and also claims the athletes used racial slurs. Of the 47 members on the lacrosse team, 46 were forced to give DNA samples. The only black player on the team was exempted.
Results of the DNA testing are expected from the Raleigh State Bureau of Investigation some time in the next two weeks.
Meanwhile, at 3:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday, the usual time, members of the Duke lacrosse team began to throw and catch, the prelude to practice. The captains led the team through stretching drills and then through a typical two-hour practice. But there will be no practice tomorrow, according to athletic officials. There was no reason given.
DURHAM, N.C. -- About a third of the members of the Duke men's lacrosse team -- embroiled in a rape investigation that caused the school to suspend the team from playing -- have been previously charged with misdemeanors stemming from drunken and disruptive behavior in the past three years, according to court documents quoted in Tuesday's editions of the Raleigh News and Observer.
Fifteen of the 47 members of the team have been charged with offenses ranging from underage alcohol possession, violating open container laws, loud noise and public urination, according to the News and Observer.
The paper said that most of those charges were resolved in deals with prosecutors that allowed the players to escape criminal convictions.
On Tuesday, Duke University's president suspended the school's highly ranked lacrosse team from play until school administrators learn more about allegations that several team members raped an exotic dancer at an off-campus party.
"In this painful period of uncertainty, it is clear to me, as it was to the players, that it would be inappropriate to resume the normal schedule of play," president Richard Brodhead said Tuesday.
Brodhead met with students Wednesday morning to discuss the incident in a forum closed to reporters, Duke spokesman Geoffrey Mock said.
"It was a meeting at which the students could share their thoughts about the topic," Mock said. He did not know how many attended but said the meeting was open to all students.
"I don't want to say I'm satisfied, but I will say that what happened in there makes me feel like we're moving in a good direction," sophomore Bridgette Howard said after the roughly hourlong session.
"We understand that the legal system is that you are innocent until proven guilty," said sophomore Kristin High. "But people are nervous and afraid that these people are going to get away with what they did because of a wealthy privilege, or male privilege, or a white privilege."
A woman told police she and another dancer were hired to perform March 13 at a private party in an off-campus home. The dancer, a student at North Carolina Central University, told police she was pulled into a bathroom, beaten, choked and raped by three men.
No one has been charged.
Police took DNA samples with a cheek swab from 46 of the lacrosse team's 47 players last week. The 47th player, the only black member of the team, did not have to provide DNA because the dancer said her attackers were white. The dancer is black.
Police said three players who live at the house where the party took place spoke with investigators and voluntarily provided samples March 16. A scheduled meeting between detectives and the rest of the team was later canceled by the players' attorney, and District Attorney Mike Nifong said Wednesday the players still refuse to speak with investigators.
"I needed to have the information about who will be charged," said District Attorney Mike Nifong said. "I feel pretty confident that a rape occurred."
Brodhead said team captains notified athletic director Joe Alleva on Tuesday that players wanted to stay off the field until the DNA results came back from a crime lab. In a statement, the captains predicted the DNA testing would clear the players of wrongdoing.
The case has roiled the campus and raised racial tensions. It has also heightened antagonism between the affluent students at Duke, which costs about $43,000 a year, and the city of Durham, which has a large population of poor people and is about evenly divided between white and black.
"The circumstances of the rape indicated a deep racial motivation for some of the things that were done," Nifong said. "It makes a crime that is by its nature one of the most offensive and invasive even more so."
Nifong said the team members are standing together and refusing to talk with investigators, and he warned he may bring aiding-and-abetting charges against some of the players.
A lawyer representing several lacrosse team members did not immediately return calls Tuesday.
Angry over the team members' silence and the university's handling of the case, Durham residents have demonstrated on and off campus in the past few days. They rallied outside the house where the alleged attack occurred and gathered outside of Duke provost Peter Lange's home, where they banged on pots and pans until he emerged to answer questions.
Lange said Monday that he believes "the students would be well-advised to come forward. They have chosen not to."
Alleva had already forced the team to miss two games because of underage drinking and the hiring of dancers at the party. Duke, considered a national title contender before the season began, has a 6-2 record with five regular-season games to go.
This shit is infuriating. The racial implications in this case are clear. And I think anyone responsible or knew about it deserves hard time. It also makes me think about if this kind of thing happened down here at Miami and if the players were black football players who allegedly raped some white chick...it woud be over. Just something to think about. I don't want anyone to say shit to me about how racism doesn't exist. It's fucking real-and prevalent. And some Duke students wearing fucking Lacrosse shirts to support the team?!? That's just sad and disgusting. It's one thing supporting your school-it's another thing if they are racist assholes. Not-trashing duke, but then again maybe I am-these fucking dirtbag lacrosee fuckers deserve that shit. There's no way in hell you can justify this shit, and don't compare this to the Kobe case. This is totally different.
Above the faces is a simple plea: "PLEASE COME FORWARD."
A day after Duke President Richard Brodhead suspended the schedule of the nationally ranked Blue Devils lacrosse team until allegations of sexual assault are resolved, no one had answered that call. No witness had stepped forward. The faces on the poster remained a symbol of the confluence of race, class, privilege and gender that has roiled the campus and community in a perfect storm of controversy and scandal.
Dinushika Mohottige was one of the Duke students posting the leaflets -- grassroots activism courtesy of the school's Progressive Alliance -- before Wednesday evening's "Take Back The Night" march across campus, part of Duke's observance of National Sexual Assault Awareness Week.
"I'm so outraged by how heinous the crime was," said Mohottige, a Florida-born woman of Sri Lankan descent. "But more than that, it's the lack of compassion the lacrosse team has shown for the victim.
"I'm sure this incident will bring to light a lot of the privilege issues that exist on this campus. This story is a wake-up call for the university."
Her anger was shared by Betty Greene, a 10-year Durham resident.
"I was appalled," said Greene. "It was just shocking. I'm a woman and a black woman. Every woman needs to be angry about this. Every man and every child. Duke is trying to hide this and they're not going to get away with it."
All day Wednesday, television satellite trucks were parked along Chapel Drive as the media descended upon Duke in an attempt to learn what actually happened at an off-campus lacrosse team party on March 13.
The alleged incident has ignited passion on campus and in the community like few stories in recent memory.
At the news conference in which he suspended the team's season indefinitely, Brodhead said, "In this painful period of uncertainty, it is clear to me, as it was to the players, that it would be inappropriate to resume the normal schedule of play. Sports have their time and place, but when issues of this gravity are in question, it is not the time to be playing games."
But even as the Duke women's basketball team continues to play games, advancing to the Final Four with a thrilling overtime victory over the University of Connecticut on Tuesday night, it was the men's lacrosse team that dominated local headlines and informal discussion on campus.
They tell Duke kids, 'Don't go into the big, bad Durham community.' Well, now they can get violated right here on campus. The administration does well to take a position that protects the rights of the young men. They've done a poor job at articulating the rights of those who feel violated and threatened by their behavior."
According to police and published accounts, this much is known:
The party occurred at 610 North Buchanan Boulevard in a house leased by three members of the lacrosse team, and was attended by as many as 40 lacrosse players. Alcohol was present. While some upperclassmen at the party were of legal drinking age, many of those in attendance were not. The services of two exotic dancers were secured through an escort service. One of the dancers, a black single mother of two and a student at nearby North Carolina Central University, claims she was held down, beaten, strangled and raped by three men.
To date, the Durham Police Department has not filed any charges in the case. But District Attorney Mike Nifong told MSNBC on Tuesday that he is convinced a sexual assault occurred.
"The behavior was bad behavior, boorish behavior," Brodhead said about the party in a Tuesday night news conference. "But from there to what is alleged is a very serious step."
The players, according to police, have not been cooperative in the investigation. The school has not undertaken its own investigation of the incident, instead deferring to the Durham Police Department, a decision that has sparked widespread criticism.
Two lacrosse games -- against North Carolina and Cornell -- were played after news of the incident surfaced. Duke officials decided Saturday, 12 days after the party, to forfeit games against Georgetown and Mount St. Mary's. The team now faces the real prospect that its 6-2 season might be over.
The charged situation has inspired several campus demonstrations over the last five days. Sunday, one night after a candlelight vigil, protestors banged on pots and pans and chanted outside the house where the party occurred. Another demonstration, scheduled for this past Saturday at Koskinen Stadium, was canceled when the Georgetown game was called off.
Earlier Wednesday, Brodhead met with about 100 students at the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture.
"That students got up at 8:30 in the morning shows you the level of concern," said Chandra Y. Guinn, the center's director. "The allegations are extremely serious and there are implications for various aspects of university policy, student life and campus culture.
"We are an educational community, and I think there needs to be educational intervention here. The issue wasn't resolved by a single meeting. There need to be many, many more conversations on this subject."
The Raleigh News & Observer published a story on Tuesday that revealed about a third of the Duke lacrosse team -- 15 players in all -- had faced previous charges that include underage alcohol possession, loud noise and public urination. Most of those charges, the story said, were resolved in deals with prosecutors that allowed the players to avoid criminal convictions. The story named names and served to galvanize critics who believe that athletes sometimes seem to function beyond the rules.
In 911 tapes released Tuesday by the Durham Police Department, a female caller reported that as she walked past the house where the party occurred on the night of the alleged attack, a white man yelled racial slurs at her and a black friend from the front yard. The alleged rape victim identified her attackers as white men and also claims the athletes used racial slurs. Of the 47 members on the lacrosse team, 46 were forced to give DNA samples. The only black player on the team was exempted.
Results of the DNA testing are expected from the Raleigh State Bureau of Investigation some time in the next two weeks.
Meanwhile, at 3:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday, the usual time, members of the Duke lacrosse team began to throw and catch, the prelude to practice. The captains led the team through stretching drills and then through a typical two-hour practice. But there will be no practice tomorrow, according to athletic officials. There was no reason given.
DURHAM, N.C. -- About a third of the members of the Duke men's lacrosse team -- embroiled in a rape investigation that caused the school to suspend the team from playing -- have been previously charged with misdemeanors stemming from drunken and disruptive behavior in the past three years, according to court documents quoted in Tuesday's editions of the Raleigh News and Observer.
Fifteen of the 47 members of the team have been charged with offenses ranging from underage alcohol possession, violating open container laws, loud noise and public urination, according to the News and Observer.
The paper said that most of those charges were resolved in deals with prosecutors that allowed the players to escape criminal convictions.
On Tuesday, Duke University's president suspended the school's highly ranked lacrosse team from play until school administrators learn more about allegations that several team members raped an exotic dancer at an off-campus party.
"In this painful period of uncertainty, it is clear to me, as it was to the players, that it would be inappropriate to resume the normal schedule of play," president Richard Brodhead said Tuesday.
Brodhead met with students Wednesday morning to discuss the incident in a forum closed to reporters, Duke spokesman Geoffrey Mock said.
"It was a meeting at which the students could share their thoughts about the topic," Mock said. He did not know how many attended but said the meeting was open to all students.
"I don't want to say I'm satisfied, but I will say that what happened in there makes me feel like we're moving in a good direction," sophomore Bridgette Howard said after the roughly hourlong session.
"We understand that the legal system is that you are innocent until proven guilty," said sophomore Kristin High. "But people are nervous and afraid that these people are going to get away with what they did because of a wealthy privilege, or male privilege, or a white privilege."
A woman told police she and another dancer were hired to perform March 13 at a private party in an off-campus home. The dancer, a student at North Carolina Central University, told police she was pulled into a bathroom, beaten, choked and raped by three men.
No one has been charged.
Police took DNA samples with a cheek swab from 46 of the lacrosse team's 47 players last week. The 47th player, the only black member of the team, did not have to provide DNA because the dancer said her attackers were white. The dancer is black.
Police said three players who live at the house where the party took place spoke with investigators and voluntarily provided samples March 16. A scheduled meeting between detectives and the rest of the team was later canceled by the players' attorney, and District Attorney Mike Nifong said Wednesday the players still refuse to speak with investigators.
"I needed to have the information about who will be charged," said District Attorney Mike Nifong said. "I feel pretty confident that a rape occurred."
Brodhead said team captains notified athletic director Joe Alleva on Tuesday that players wanted to stay off the field until the DNA results came back from a crime lab. In a statement, the captains predicted the DNA testing would clear the players of wrongdoing.
The case has roiled the campus and raised racial tensions. It has also heightened antagonism between the affluent students at Duke, which costs about $43,000 a year, and the city of Durham, which has a large population of poor people and is about evenly divided between white and black.
"The circumstances of the rape indicated a deep racial motivation for some of the things that were done," Nifong said. "It makes a crime that is by its nature one of the most offensive and invasive even more so."
Nifong said the team members are standing together and refusing to talk with investigators, and he warned he may bring aiding-and-abetting charges against some of the players.
A lawyer representing several lacrosse team members did not immediately return calls Tuesday.
Angry over the team members' silence and the university's handling of the case, Durham residents have demonstrated on and off campus in the past few days. They rallied outside the house where the alleged attack occurred and gathered outside of Duke provost Peter Lange's home, where they banged on pots and pans until he emerged to answer questions.
Lange said Monday that he believes "the students would be well-advised to come forward. They have chosen not to."
Alleva had already forced the team to miss two games because of underage drinking and the hiring of dancers at the party. Duke, considered a national title contender before the season began, has a 6-2 record with five regular-season games to go.
This shit is infuriating. The racial implications in this case are clear. And I think anyone responsible or knew about it deserves hard time. It also makes me think about if this kind of thing happened down here at Miami and if the players were black football players who allegedly raped some white chick...it woud be over. Just something to think about. I don't want anyone to say shit to me about how racism doesn't exist. It's fucking real-and prevalent. And some Duke students wearing fucking Lacrosse shirts to support the team?!? That's just sad and disgusting. It's one thing supporting your school-it's another thing if they are racist assholes. Not-trashing duke, but then again maybe I am-these fucking dirtbag lacrosee fuckers deserve that shit. There's no way in hell you can justify this shit, and don't compare this to the Kobe case. This is totally different.