Dancer gives details of ordeal
A woman hired to dance for the Duke lacrosse team describes a night of racial slurs, growing fear and, finally, sexual violence
Samiha Khanna and Anne Blythe, Staff Writers
The woman who says she was raped last week by three members of the Duke University lacrosse team thought she would be dancing for five men at a bachelor party, she said Friday. But when she arrived that night, she found herself surrounded by more than 40.Just moments after she and another exotic dancer started to perform, she said, men in the house started barking racial slurs. The two women, both black, stopped dancing.
"We started to cry," she said. "We were so scared."
Forty-six members of the men's lacrosse team submitted DNA samples Thursday in the unusual case. As of late Friday, there had been no arrests. Duke officials briefed university staff Friday on the allegations, and authorities vowed to crack the team's wall of solidarity.
"We're asking someone from the lacrosse team to step forward," Durham police Cpl. David Addison said. "We will be relentless in finding out who committed this crime."
He emphasized the seriousness of the accusations -- first-degree rape, kidnapping, assault by strangulation and robbery.
*SNIP*
This was the first time she [the dancer] had been hired to dance provocatively for a group, she said. There was no security to protect her, and as the men became aggressive, the two women started to leave. After some of the men apologized for the behavior, the women went back inside, according to police. That's when the woman was pulled into a bathroom and raped and sodomized, police said.
She hesitated to tell police what happened, she said Friday. She realized she had to, for her young daughter and her father.
*SNIP* was on his porch next door during the party, saw the victim that night. He said Friday that he wishes he had called police at the first sign something was wrong.
He saw at least 30 men go into the white three-bedroom house, which Duke officials say is rented by three lacrosse team captains.
Bissey saw two women arrive and, after they were in the house 20 minutes, come out. As they got into a car, men shouted, Bissey said.
"Some of them were saying things like, 'I want my money back,' " Bissey said.
He recalled the racially charged statements at least one man was yelling at the victim.
"When I was outside, one guy yelled at her, '... Thank your grandpa for my cotton shirt,' " Bissey said.
After a few minutes, everything seemed to calm down, he said. One of the women headed back into the house, saying she forgot her shoes.
Days later, Bissey learned one of the young women reported being raped.
"If I had called in the beginning, maybe the cops would have gotten there before this happened," he said.
*SNIP*Art Chase, Duke sports information director, said lacrosse coach Mike Pressler and athletics department administrators had spoken with team captains about the incident. The department was not conducting an investigation of its own, Chase said.
"I think they'll let the judicial system run its course," he said.
Chase said he was not sure of the occasion for the party. Players did not return phone calls, and their parents remained mum, as did Pressler. He and the team were preparing Friday for today's home game against Georgetown University.
Paul Haagen, chairman of Duke's Academic Council, was in a faculty meeting about the incident.
*SNIP*Haagen, a law professor who specializes in sports law, said studies show that violence against women is more prevalent among male athletes than among male students in general -- and higher still among such "helmet sports" as football, hockey and lacrosse.
"These are sports of violence," he said. "This is clearly a concern."
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