Duke LaCrosse rape allegations: 911 calls conflict with story, Lawyers say DNA will vindicate players

Two Durham police officers were investigating a reported disturbance at a Duke lacrosse party just 16 minutes before the alleged victim of a gang-rape there showed up at a grocery store more than 2 miles away to call for help.

But police found nothing at the scene, a police spokeswoman said.

Meanwhile, the district attorney began downplaying a link between the results of DNA tests that are expected as early as next week and any possible charges. He also said the DNA test results might not be made public when they return from the state forensics lab.

The lacrosse players and their attorneys have said the test results would prove the rape allegations are false. Police, applying for a court order compelling the DNA samples from 46 players, said the tests would "show conclusive evidence as to who the suspect(s) are in the alleged violent attack upon this victim."

Police arrived at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd. just two minutes after a woman called 911 to report she and her black friend had been verbally accosted by men outside the house yelling a racial slur early on March 14, according to computer dispatch records.

"Officers responded to the call at 610 N. Buchanan within a minute of the dispatch. The complainant was not on the scene and no one seemed to be at the house, according to the officers, so they cleared the scene after checking the area for several minutes," said police spokeswoman Kammie Michael.

The dispatch records show officers were on the scene for more than 11 minutes.

"Where are all these white guys raising hell?" asked an incredulous James D. "Butch" Williams, who represents a lacrosse captain who lived at the house and voluntarily submitted to a DNA test shortly after one of two exotic dancers hired to entertain at the party said she was raped, sodomized and beaten by three white men there. "When the people start digging the least little bit, they're gong to find out things don't make sense."

Williams attended a news conference in Raleigh on Thursday with three other attorneys representing the 46 lacrosse players who gave DNA samples to investigators. None of the players has been charged.

"We believe that the DNA will show that it is not true. We believe that a full and complete and fair investigation will show that it is not true," said attorney Joe Cheshire of Raleigh.

Cheshire said Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong and police have created a mob mentality that has tainted the men "before the evidence has all come out in a way that they will never recover." Vigils and protests, newspaper letters to the editor and local blogs all have been harshly critical of the players, whose season has been suspended.

But Williams questioned the strength of the evidence. He implied Thursday that the 911 calls might have been a scam and that the entire incident was staged.

In her call reporting the racial slur, the unidentified woman offered different versions of the incident. She variously said she had driven by the house, had walked by the house and was sitting in front of the house at the time she was talking to the 911 dispatcher. She initially said one male near the Duke wall hurled the racial epithet, and later said a group of people came out of 610 N. Buchanan yelling at her and her friend. The wall and the house are on opposite sides of a dimly lit street.

"There are a number of discrepancies that point toward a contrived situation -- maybe," said Williams.

The attorney said he didn't know why anyone might perpetrate such a potential hoax.

"I can't speak to speculation," he added. "But once you tell one lie, you've got to tell another and another and another. You're caught up in a web of lies."

According to official police logs obtained by The Herald-Sun, the first 911 call was received at 12:53. a.m. on March 14, and the first officer arrived at 610 N. Buchanan at 12:55 a.m. A second unit responded, and both departed by 1:06 a.m.

The second 911 call, from the Kroger store on Hillsborough Road, initially was dispatched as an intoxicated person but later was changed to a rape case allegedly involving those at the lacrosse party. The call was placed at 1:22 a.m., 27 minutes after the police arrived to investigate the first 911 call and 16 minutes after they left the scene. The Kroger store is 2.3 miles from 610 N. Buchanan.

The second caller later told police that she had found the victim walking on North Buchanan and then drove her to the store to get help.

Williams, who has a private investigator working on the case, noted that the Police Department is closer -- nine-tenths of a mile away -- than the Kroger store and wondered why the victim would have been driven to a grocery store farther away.

Michael, the police spokeswoman, was quoted in a published report saying the woman who drove to the Kroger store was the second exotic dancer hired by the lacrosse players. Earlier Michael told The Herald-Sun the driver was not the second dancer.

Nifong had no comment Thursday on defense attorneys' claims of inconsistencies in the first 911 call, nor on the proximity of times between the first and second 911 calls and the police response.

"I'm not going to talk about that right now," said Nifong. "I don't see it as an issue that would affect the way I prosecute this case. Right now, I'm just trying to get into a position where we can charge somebody or conclude that no one will be charged."

Nifong said he had spoken with the State Bureau of Investigation on Thursday and was assured that DNA test results from the case still might be available next week, as originally predicted.

"In this instance, we wouldn't have as strong a case without DNA, but it wouldn't necessarily be a no-case situation either," he said.

Even if there is no DNA match with any of the lacrosse players, it still is "absolutely possible" that charges might be lodged, according to Nifong.

"What did we use before we had DNA?" he asked. "We relied basically on identification of defendants by victims."

However, Nifong declined to say whether the alleged rape victim was able to identify any of the lacrosse players by sight.

The district attorney said it was unlikely he would make DNA test results immediately available to the public.

And if charges arise in the case, it isn't yet known if they will originate through grand jury indictments or through normal arrest warrants, according to Nifong.

He said that, in addition to any possible rape charges, some lacrosse players at the party -- but not all of them -- might be accused of acting in concert with the rapists or aiding and abetting them.

Meanwhile, The lawyers for Duke men's lacrosse players said Thursday that police and an outraged community will owe the team an apology after DNA tests are completed – tests they said will prove no one on the team raped an exotic dancer.

Four attorneys representing nearly all the 46 players forced to give samples protested what they said was a presumption that their clients attacked the dancer or kept quiet about what happened. No one has been charged.

"We believe that the DNA will show that it is not true. We believe that a full and complete and fair investigation will show that it is not true," said attorney Joe Cheshire.

Investigators are still collecting evidence, but District Attorney Mike Nifong has said in recent days he already believes a crime occurred. Even if the state crime lab's DNA analysis proves inconclusive or doesn't provide a match for any of the athletes, Nifong has said he'll have other evidence.

"If the only thing that we ever have in this case is DNA, then we wouldn't have a case," Nifong said Wednesday.

Nifong insists the guilty will stand trial, telling co-anchor Rene Syler on The Early Show Thursday that there's no doubt a sexual assault took place.

"The victim was examined at Duke University Medical Center by a nurse who was specially trained in sexual assault cases," Nifong said. "And the investigation at that time was certainly consistent with a sexual assault having taken place, as was the victim's demeanor at the time of the examination."

This week, university president Richard Brodhead suspended the highly ranked team from play until the school learns more about the accusations. But Cheshire said Nifong and police have created a mob mentality that has tainted the men "before the evidence has all come out in a way that they will never recover."

"The lacrosse team, clearly, has not been fully cooperative" in the investigation, Nifong confirmed to Syler. "The university, I believe, has done pretty much everything that they can under the circumstances. They, obviously, don't have a lot of control over whether or not the lacrosse team members actually speak to the police. I think that their silence is as a result of advice with counsel."

English professor Melissa Malouf said she is one of those prepared for the DNA tests to prove inconclusive.

"I don't think the DNA is the case," she said after speaking at an outdoor protest near Brodhead's office. "Guys can wear condoms."

According to the application for a court order seeking DNA samples from the team, a nurse trained to treat rape victims and a physician who treated the woman said they witnessed symptoms consistent with sexual assault. The document also includes details of a search of the house where the woman said she was raped for about a half-hour.

 

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Gambling911.com News Wire

Originally published March 31, 2006 9:13 am ET