Posted on 04/05/2006 12:54:43 PM PDT by Porsche060
Police Uncover New Duke Lacrosse E-Mail Apr 05 3:15 PM US/Eastern Email this story
By EMERY P. DALESIO Associated Press Writer
DURHAM, N.C.
Hours after an exotic dancer was allegedly raped by members of the Duke University lacrosse team, a player apparently sent an e-mail saying he wanted to invite more strippers to his dorm room, kill them and skin them. It was not clear whether the message was serious or a joke.
Investigators did not return calls seeking comment about the nature of the e-mail. But a lawyer for the player who purportedly wrote it said the content suggests his client is innocent.
"While the language of the e-mail is vile, the e-mail itself is perfectly consistent with the boys' unequivocal assertion that no sexual assault took place that evening," said attorney Robert Ekstrand. The e-mail "demonstrates that its writer is completely unaware that any act or event remotely similar to what has been alleged ever occurred."
No charges have been filed in the case, which has roiled the campus and the community and led the school to suspend the lacrosse team from play.
The e-mail, according to an application for a search warrant of the player's dorm room, was sent from his Duke e-mail account just before 2 a.m. on March 14. Police said investigators received a copy from a confidential source, though they later won a court order seeking access to the account.
In the e-mail, addressed "To whom it may concern," the player says he has "decided to have some strippers over" to his dorm room, "however there will be no nudity."
"I plan on killing the bitches as soon as the walk in and proceding to cut their skin off," the author of the e-mail says, adding in vulgar terms that he would find the act sexually satisfying.
The e-mail was signed with what police said is the player's jersey number.
The warrant for the player's room was made public on Wednesday. In it, police provide a detailed timeline of the alleged attack and some additional details of their investigation. The warrant also adds conspiracy to commit murder as one of the crimes police are investigating.
The dancer, a student at a nearby university, has told police she was raped at the party by three men who restrained and choked her in a bathroom.
Investigators have collected DNA from 46 of the 47 team members. The team's lone black member did not provide a sample because the dancer, who is black, said her attackers were white. A spokeswoman for the state attorney general's office said Wednesday the analysis has not been completed.
The lacrosse team's co-captains have denied that anyone was sexually assaulted at the party, as have attorneys for the players.
According to the warrant, the alleged victim told police she believes the players used false names and falsely claimed to be members of Duke's baseball and track teams. A team captain and resident of the house where the party took place told police he used an alias when hiring the dancers at the party, the warrant states.
Curious... was the coach at the party, did he plan it, did he cover anything up? Seems odd that the President of the univ. would accept the resignation indicating it is best for the team/school.
Maybe the reason is for lack of institutional control? If the coach had nothing to do with this event and the aftermath... I would have resigned not to save the univ, but to get the heck out of the seedy situation.
Sarcastic ? What ever happened to responsibility going with free speech ? Think you should go and tell someone anyone all their loved ones died in a car accident when it didn't happen ? free speech isn't worth shat without someone old enough to understand responsibility !
Back when i was a kid your freedom was given you a little at a time so that you could learn how to use your freedom properly today it's given from birth without any form of measure for a child to control it nor the maturity of restraint NO RESPONSIBILITY cause's your freedom to be a curse upon you and those you effect with it ....
Common sense used to rule the day in situations such as these all the time common sense was something i used to enjoy seeing in people today common sense is thrown to the wind along with anything else trivial to being civilized !
I don't think the results are in yet on the DNA. One article said that charges were likely next week pending DNA evidence.
E-mail or no e-mail, I believe the victim went to the hospital. The DNA will prove innocence or guilt.
Those fun loving boys... I was in a frat in college, and there were a couple of incidents like this, except the women weren't physically restrained, at least according to the rumors. The women were drunk, and were sexually assaulted in very degrading ways. The guys involved were real low-lifes. Police finally cracked down on frat drinking when the city police chief's 16-year-old daughter got drunk at a frat party.
Why? It was in a private e-mail. Whatever happened to freedom of speech and the right to privacy?
I don't know if you can consider the school's server private email. The police managed to obtain a search warrant in any case.
Maybe I don't get it. I was in a wild frat in college. Lots of wrestlers in our house. If a guy had said or written something like that, he would have been thought of as a weird sicko. I only graduated in 2000.
Real classy.
a rather odd bizarre e-mail
this whole thing is bizarre
What on the internet is private ?
And aparently who ever received the email thought it was serious enough to report that brings it out of the private realm and into the public.
I can't beleive someone would defend the planning of a torturous murder.
What if your child was the stripper ?
OOPS there goes that ability to think ! pesky thinking always gets in the way don't it ?
The other thing you get a place like Duke is a nationwide network of contacts that last your entire life. For the ambitious, that can be extremely valuable.
I lived in Edens for 7 of my 8 undergraduate semesters. It's a closely packed residential dorm. We all knew each others business including who had a "guest" in the room. No way you could get away with anything like what's described in the e-mail. It's hyperbolic, figurative and offensive. But people do that all the time. My parents used to tell me that if I didn't straighten up they were "going to skin me alive", and which of you hasn't said you were going to "kill your professor" after receiving a bad grade? Unfortunately, this is really bad timing for such excessive language.
It was reported that the ER doctor said her injuries were consistent with rape.
I have an open mind on this, but consensual sex with a bunch of college guys at a frat party is also gonna be consistent with the physical symptoms of rape as well. She obviously didn't have any significant injuries or we would have heard about them, like broken bones, or hosptial admission type stuff. Most real rapes result in a victim that is seriously injured separate from the sex. Payment disputes and the like generate telephone calls and trips to do the rape kit examination. But I remain open to the facts.
except it was Spring Break at Duke--would the dorm not be empty?
I remain open to facts also. But my guess is it happened.
Remember, the players are claiming they never had sex with her, so that wouldn't be possible if they are to be believed. Either they didn't touch her at all (their account) or she was raped (her account). There is no consenual sex defense here that remains credible.
I didn't hear that they had made any statement. I doubt their lawyer would let them make a statement before they have been charged, but I agree that a statement that "nothing occurred" would be inconsistent with physical evidence of rape.
How about she was working her "profession" with several partners before she showed up at the lax party? How about she had consensual sex with several Duke students but not lax team members? Lots of scenarios. It's also possible that, if there was a rape, it was not lax team members but she thought that they were?
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