On March 14, 2006 two African-American women were allegedly raped,sodomized, and racially terrorized by white members of the Duke University Men's Lacrosse team at a party they were hired to dance for.. This site serves as a watchdog, information hub, and activism vehicle to ensure these young women receive the justice they deserve.

At no time have both women claimed to be raped.

I think there's something very fishy about the two women's stories. I won't be surprised if it turns out the rape allegation was fabricated to get back at the players for demeaning them, probably with racial epithets.

Rape is a serious charge. It is easy to make and difficult to defend. Only one of the women was inside the house when the alleged rape occurred. She has evidence of injuries, but when did they occur, who was responsible (not all the attendees were team players) and were they the result of rape or consensual sex?

Let's extend the presumption of innocence to the players, even in the court of public opinion, until more facts are known.

Some background:

Here's the timeline.

The women leave the party. One goes back in. She leaves again and meets up with the second woman. At some point, the second woman calls 911 to complain about racial epithets hurled at her by one or more males at the house. (listen to the call here.)Within two minutes police arrive, there is no sign of the woman.

A half hour later, a second 911 call comes in from a supermarket two miles away (the police station was only one mile away.) The store clerk tells the operator there are two women, one of whom appears drunk and won't get out of the car. You can hear the other in the background of the 9/11 call. (listen here.)

This woman who won't get out of the car, was the woman who went back into the house. She is a college student, part-time stripper/dancer/escort and mother of two. She then alleges she was raped by three white males at the party. She provides first names. Here is the search warrant later executed at the house which names them. One is not on the team.

She goes to the hospital where the nurse conducting the rape exam finds evidence of sexual activity. The DA calls in all 46 white players for a DNA test. The players deny any sexual activity occurred.

The DA, who is running for re-election in May, says he believes she was raped by guys at the house. He doesn't care whether the DNA tests come back positive or not. After all, he says, maybe they wore a condom.

Duke cancels team games until further notice. Now for the discrepancies.

Of note are two phone calls received by the Durham Police that night, the first made by a woman who said she was driving by the house at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd., about an hour before the alleged rape took place, at which point, according to transcripts of the conversation, she was met with racial slurs.

In the transcript, the woman states: "I don't know if this is an emergency or not necessarily, but I'm in Durham and I was driving down near Duke's campus and it's me and my black girlfriend and the guy, there's like a white guy by the Duke wall and he just hollered out "n-----" to me and I'm just so angry, I didn't know who to call. I don't know if this is an emergency ... they're just hanging out by the wall."

There's more:

In the first 911 call the woman initially claimed: "I'm in Durham, and I was driving down near Duke's campus..." But just seconds later on the same phone call, stated: "and me and my black girlfriend are walking by."

The lawyers also pointed out the discrepancy in the phone call of the number of men allegedly harassing the two women. At first, the caller claims, "and the guy, there's like a white guy by the Duke wall, and he just hollered out 'n-----' to me," but later in the same call adjusts the story, claiming multiple men approached them. "And I saw them all come out of, like, a big frat house...and they called us 'n------.'"

She kept repeating the house number, but it's not visible from the street.

From the second call:

In an excerpt of the conversation, the security guard states, when asked by the dispatcher to describe the problem he is reporting: "The problem is it's a lady in somebody else's car and she will not get out of their car. She's like intoxicated or drunk or something and she won't get out of the car, period.

Then there's this:

In an article filed by the Herald-Sun on March 29, Angel Altmon, the security guard who made a 911 call at 1:22 a.m. on March 14, is quoted extensively. Altmon claimed the driver of the car said she was not at the party with the alleged victim. The driver, who identified herself as "Kim", told Altmon she was driving near the party scene, saw the victim walking outside with "a whole lot of Duke guys hollering at her" and picked her up.

But in an article in the Duke Chronicle the following day, Kammie Michael, public information officer for the Durham Police Department, told the Chronicle the woman who drove the alleged victim to the grocery store was in fact the second dancer at the party.

The accuser provides her version.

The papers report 15 of the players have had minor arrests, almost all for typical kid stuff like underage drinking and noise violations. No sex crimes. The team has a reputation for loud parties.

Some news reports say the three who lived at the house did not cooperate. Not true:

The Police Department issued a news release Wednesday saying that when police searched the house March 16, the three residents of the house, who were all Duke University lacrosse captains, volunteered to go to Durham Police Substation 2 for interviews, the release said. When the interviews were completed, the three men agreed to go to Duke University Medical Center, where they voluntarily agreed to provide "suspect test kits."

The DA had asked to meet with all of the team members. When they canceled the meeting, he issued an order compelling them to give DNA tests. All of them did. But the three who lived at the house went voluntarily the night of the search and were interviewed.

Update: A newer timeline is here.

Update: Good reading, from our archives, Rape Suspects Face an Uphill Battle.

And on injuries after sex, from Dr. Michael Baden:

DR. MICHAEL BADEN, FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST: Usually, a physician can't tell consensual from non-consensual. They can tell whether there's been intercourse or not intercourse, but not whether it's consensual because one can have bruises and certain injuries from consensual sex and one can have no injuries from non-consensual sex.

On false reporting in rape cases.

Update: New thread on the Duke case here. I'm closing comments on this one, feel free to comment over there.