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The Guilfordian

The student news site of Guilford College

The Guilfordian

The student news site of Guilford College

The Guilfordian

Duke rape case faces uncertain evidence

A 27-year-old black exotic dancer told police that three white members of Duke University’s lacrosse team dragged her into a bathroom and raped her for half an hour during an off-campus party. The hired exotic dancers were told it would be a bachelor party with five people present. When the women arrived, over 40 drunk lacrosse players were waiting.

The woman, a UNC Central student, said that the alleged attackers beat, choked and yelled racial slurs at her in the bathroom.

The alleged victim said some of her fake fingernails broke off as she struggled to free herself. Later, police found four fingernails in a bathroom at the party house, according to North Carolina Independent Media.

Two lacrosse players were indicted Monday for the woman’s rape.

A member of the lacrosse team claims to have photographs from the night of the alleged rape, March 13, during Duke’s spring break, that show that the dancer was already cut and bruised when she came to the party, according to The New York Times.

On 911 tapes, the first police officer to see her described the woman as “just passed-out drunk” according to CBS News.

A police report states that a doctor and nurse that tended to the accuser after the alleged incident found the woman to have “signs, symptoms, and injuries consistent with being raped.”

Police found an e-mail sent from Ryan McFadyen to a fellow lacrosse player describing his desire to invite more strippers to the house, “killing the b*****es as soon as they walk in and proceeding to cut their skin off.”

According the team roster on Duke University’s Web site, McFadyen is listed as a 6-foot-6-inch and 225-pound sophomore.

Members of the team said that the e-mail was a reference to the movie “American Psycho.” The sender of the e-mail was suspended pending a campus judicial review.

Police took DNA samples from 46 of the 47 team players. The accuser described her alleged attackers as white, so the lone black player was exempt from DNA testing.

“There is no DNA evidence that shows she was touched by any of these boys,” said defense attorney Joe Cheshire to ABC News.

Cheshire said the report indicated authorities took DNA samples from all over the woman’s body, including under her fingernails and from her possessions, like her cell phone and clothing.

District Attorney Mike Nifong said that he has other evidence to make his case.

“Although there may be no semen samples to collect, there will still be the signs of vaginal tearing or trauma and pubic hairs from the alleged rapist could still be used to try and pin down who the perpetrator is,” said junior Polly Kanoy, a Criminal Justice major.

“The absence of DNA doesn’t necessarily mean anything other than no DNA was left behind,” Nifong said to MSNBC.

Donald Parker, North Carolina Central University senior said that the DNA tests took a suspiciously long time and that the results didn’t surprise him, “dealing with this racist system.”

“If it was a black man, do you think they would have waited for DNA tests, or that DNA tests would have played a valuable part in the evidence?” Parker said to The Herald Sun.

The rape accusation heightened tensions between the mostly-white Duke campus and the mostly-black city of Durham, N.C.

Duke administrators told The Chronicle of Higher Education that they recognize that the accusations have exposed problems in campus culture not unique to Duke, and that they will work to resolve them.

President Richard H. Brodhead headed a series of internal investigations that will decide if Duke has fostered a culture of intolerance.

Protestors appeared in front of the lacrosse house vowing to return every week until justice was served.

Bishop John Bennett, with other members of the Church of the Apostolic Revival in Durham, protested to say that justice has not been served because no lacrosse player had been arrested or spent time in jail.

“Why would any community that has any kind of sense allow persons accused of rape, to freelance and walk the streets as if nothing has happened?” Bennett said to ABC News.

Duke University cancelled the rest of the lacrosse team’s season. Coach Mike Pressler, who spent 16 seasons at Duke, resigned after the accusations.

“I’m not saying it’s over,” Nifong told The News and Observer. “If that’s what they expect, they will be sadly

disappointed.

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