This case just keeps getting stranger and stranger:
The woman who says she was raped by three members of Duke’s lacrosse team also told police 10 years ago she was raped by three men, filing a 1996 complaint claiming she had been assaulted three years earlier when she was 14.
Authorities in nearby Creedmoor said Thursday that none of the men named in the decade-old report was ever charged but they didn’t have details why.
A phone number for the accuser has been disconnected and her family declined to comment to The Associated Press. But relatives told Essence magazine in an online story this week that the woman declined to pursue the case out of fear for her safety.
Real? Not real? On one hand, the accused are innocent till proven guilty. On the other hand, rape trials generally turn nasty, which can lead to women not coming forward to make the Complaint. If someone has made a huge mistake, it is Durham DA Mike Nifong, who should have kept his mouth shut from the get go.
In other news, I have heard, but cannot find written confirmation, that the accuser has not decided to testify or not. From what all the legal analysts are saying, if she doesn’t, the case will be dismissed.
Also, more idiots marching:
The national chairman of the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense says his group intends to march at Duke University on Monday to “deal directly” with lacrosse players about charges of rape of an escort service dancer at a team party.
I wasn’t aware that they were sworn officers of the law, subplanting the City of Durham, Durham County Sheriff’s Dept, NC State police, etc. But, as the article points out:
“They are a racist and anti-Semitic group,” said Myrna Shinbaum, a spokesperson for the New York-based league. “These guys come armed. They carry shotguns to demonstrations. The authorities down there should know this.”
Asked whether his followers will be armed when they come to Duke, Shabazz chuckled and said, “I don’t know if I can comment on that.”
Duke authorities would be well advised to turn the Panthers down, being that Duke is a private institution on private property. Either that, or have a bunch of armed police on hand.
Shinbaum has already convicted the players, and, is spouting plenty of racist invective over this case, as the Panthers are often caught doing. We will see if Nifong meets with them, which would be totally innapropriate.
