Posted on 09/20/2002 5:44:20 AM PDT by 07055
DUNCAN, Okla. – It's been a date long anticipated: the Duncan High School football team, hoping to reclaim past glory and opening its 2002 home season against the five-time defending state champions. The game will be played as scheduled Friday night, but for some, it's no longer a simple story of touchdowns and tackles. It's part of a complex saga of crime and punishment, history and race. It's the odyssey of a proud town anguished by accusations that five of its football heroes – all of them black – sexually assaulted a 14-year-old Indian girl.
"We were already hurting" when it came to race relations, said Don Taylor, the lone black member of Duncan's park board. "But this really kind of set us apart."
Two of the accused players have pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against their former teammates. The others – still enrolled at Duncan High but not permitted to play football – face trial Oct. 21. No matter the outcome, residents say, the case has divided blacks and whites, parents and school administrators, students and neighbors: Some believe the players were treated more gently by school administrators because of their football status, each receiving a nine-day suspension after the incident last November.
Others – particularly those in the predominantly black area of Duncan known as "The Hill" – suggest the case illustrates a history of local law enforcement overlooking the transgressions of well-to-do whites while making examples of low-income blacks. They suggest that if the defendants had been white, the case would have been handled differently and resolved quietly.
.....
For example, Mr. Taylor said that he believes his hometown bears responsibility for helping create a climate in which such an incident could occur. He noted that black youths – many of them poor – do not enjoy the same recreational and social opportunities as whites.
He believes the case would have been been resolved without ever going to trial or being splashed on the front page of the newspaper if it had involved affluent whites.
(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...
How is it profiling? Four of the five admitted what they did.
Does that mean that blacks should get a free pass on rape because of their race?
How do they think they are? Bill Clinton?
That's nice, but instead of saying that blacks should get off too, wouldn't it make more sense to insist on cracking down on the whites? One of the biggest problems with the "system" is that it keeps easing penalties instead of making them hurt enough to be a prohibitive factor.
Others – particularly those in the predominantly black area of Duncan known as "The Hill" – suggest the case illustrates a history of local law enforcement overlooking the transgressions of well-to-do whites while making examples of low-income blacks. They suggest that if the defendants had been white, the case would have been handled differently and resolved quietly.That is an argument that might find some resonance when talking about something such as being caught drunk or with drugs.
But in this case, we are talking about gang rape.
It chills me that there is a group that thinks gang rape should ever be resolved quietly.
The leaders of the side making that claim would do well to consider the fact that all they are doing is waking people up to the vacuousness of that emotional appeal to people's disdain for bias. And displaying their own moral vaccuum.
Coulda, woulda, shoulda. The same old song. It's the white man's fault we're street thugs. How convenient.
You did the crime now you must take all that goes with it.
Quit gangbangin' and all these problems mysteriously disappear.
In other words, to hell with the Indian girl who was gang-raped. This should be about leveling the playing field between black rapists and white rapists, for the greater good.
He's flat wrong, anyway. He thinks white boys would get away with the same act, and I can point to more than one example of where they absolutely did not--including a group of WHITE football players across the river in New Jersey, who are still in prison for gang-raping a retarded girl with various objects.
...therefore the town committed the rape, not the perps.
Yeah, that's really the worst part of this whole thing. Forget the fact that a 14-year-old girl was RAPED -- that's beside the point, the real tragedy is its effect on "race relations."
(/sarcasm)
I'd rather not have to register in order to read this article at the site. I don't like that.
Beware then, if you live in a rural area or small town with limited social outlets. Guard you daughters, or issue burqa's.
I have fond memories, as a bored young man without suitable opportunites... I guess you make your own opportunities
"We're not going to please everybody on this deal – and we haven't," said Assistant District Attorney Jason Hicks, who is prosecuting the case. "But we can't allow that to affect our decisions."
Like many towns in rural America, Duncan long embraced its Friday night gladiators, its beloved Demons as much a part of its civic identity as oil-field services giant Halliburton, established here in 1919 as New Method Oil Well Cementing Co. A statue of founder Erle P. Halliburton stands along the old Chisholm Trail route known as U.S. Highway 81, the lights and concrete façade of the Demons' Halliburton Stadium as a backdrop.
In the past, residents say, the town literally shut down when the Demons were playing, not only filling the stands at home but at away games as well. In an era with more leisure choices, home contests remain must-see events – and Friday night's opener against Midwest City's Carl Albert High is no exception.
But not so many follow the team on the road anymore – a trend reported by high schools across the state.
Even so, news of last November's incident – in the Halliburton Stadium parking lot during a youth all-star football game – hit hard, not only because of accusations against five first-team players, but also because, for some, it sullied the town's reputation and stirred racial tension. Some were appalled that a group of black ministers established a legal defense fund for the accused teenagers.
ANDREW LAKER / SPECIAL TO DMN Community leader Don Taylor believes the teens would be treated more leniently if they were white.
"The circumstances surrounding it – and how it tore apart the community – probably made it the toughest [case] of my career," said former Detective Kyle Boehm, who spearheaded the Duncan Police Department investigation.
"We're all surprised something like that actually happened in this community," said Mr. Hicks.
The incident occurred Nov. 8 – the day before Duncan's first playoff game. The girl, a student in nearby Comanche, was at the stadium, along with her mother, to watch her younger brother play, authorities said.
Two agreed to plea deal
Two of the accused players, both 17, recently struck a deal with prosecutors, pleading guilty and agreeing to testify against their former teammates.
The two – a running back and quarterback – received two five-year sentences. One got an additional five-year sentence for a separate sexual assault.
Three others – a 16-year-old offensive starter and two 17-year-old defenders – are facing trial.
All five cases are being handled under the state's Youthful Offender Act. If convicted and sentenced, the three teens also would be sent to a state juvenile detention facility, with their cases reviewed annually at ages 18, 19 and 20 to determine if they were complying with conditions of confinement. If convicted, they could be released after the yearly review – or they could be sent to the state's adult correctional system to complete their sentences.
The girl told authorities she knew four of her assailants. She said one of them approached her outside a stadium restroom, seeking sex, but she declined. Later, she said, another coaxed her to the parking lot – ostensibly to tell her what another girl was saying about her.
The three others, she said, also showed up. She said they forced her into the back seat of a car, held her arms and legs, removed her clothes and took turns sexually assaulting her, despite her repeated pleas for them to stop.
The fifth teen told police he was in the stands, watching the game, when one of the other four invited him to the parking lot to have sex with the girl.
"I think she was really overwhelmed by the four guys," said Mr. Boehm, the former detective who now works as a district loss-prevention supervisor for a major retailer. "By the time the fifth guy came into the picture ... she was so traumatized that she didn't even remember him. At that point, she just wanted out."
According to a police affidavit, the first four teens conceded in interviews with detectives that they forced the girl to engage in sex against her wishes.
Mr. Boehm described their attitudes as "We're football players. We're untouchable. We can do anything we want."
The girl did not tell anyone about the assault, authorities said, until the next day, when a physical exam at Duncan Regional Medical Center yielded evidence consistent with her story.
School suspensions
The teens played that night – a loss that eliminated Duncan from the playoffs – but word already was circulating about the incident. The five youths subsequently were suspended for nine days, but allowed to return. Assistant Superintendent Larry David declined to discuss the punishment, citing federal student privacy laws. But school officials told police they could not impose harsher punishment because the assault was not connected to a school event.
ANDREW LAKER / SPECIAL TO DMN Some in Duncan blame racial inequities in a rape case; others say the athletes have received light treatment. "It stirred up a controversy in school," Mr. David said, "because when you go to school with somebody, you hate to see them in a situation like this, but you also hate to see someone be a victim."
But, he added, "I haven't heard much out of it in awhile."
Mr. Boehm said he believes the guilty pleas defused some tension fueled by the case. And he said a judge's order that effectively bans the three awaiting trial from participating in any school activities except classroom work also has helped.
The Rev. Ronald Boyd said two of the former players attended Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, where he is pastor. He helped establish the defense fund that enraged some Duncan residents. It was an effort that had nothing to do with guilt or innocence, but rather was an attempt to help the teens' families, he said.
"Our hearts do go out to the young girl and her family," he said. "We're praying for her as well. And we're praying the truth comes out. There's no reason for anybody to lie. Whatever the truth is, we accept.
"I think we can handle it. I think whatever comes out, we have to accept that and move on. We have to take precaution that these types of things don't happen anymore."
For some, though, other issues surrounding the case are far from resolved.
For example, Mr. Taylor said that he believes his hometown bears responsibility for helping create a climate in which such an incident could occur. He noted that black youths – many of them poor – do not enjoy the same recreational and social opportunities as whites.
The best recreational facilities tend to be miles from the southeast part of town, where most black residents live, he said.
Worse, he said, such facilities and parks are either dilapidated or nonexistent in the area where many of Duncan's fewer than 1,000 black residents live.
"You can blame the community for that," said Mr. Taylor, a former sports star at Duncan.
Mr. Taylor, 50, said he believes the case of the five football players – most from single-parent homes or being raised by their grandmothers – illustrates that low-income black youths aren't treated the same as white teens whose families have money.
He believes the case would have been been resolved without ever going to trial or being splashed on the front page of the newspaper if it had involved affluent whites.
"It was something that shouldn't have happened," he said. "But in Duncan, it's who you know and whether you've got money. There's a lot of things that happen here that never come out in the paper."
Mr. Boehm, who spent 13 ½ years as a Duncan police officer, disagreed.
"It had nothing to do with what race they were," he said. "Rape is one of the most violent crimes there is. They were terrorizing and traumatizing a 14-year-old girl. That's what it's all about. It could have been five white guys, and I wouldn't have handled it any differently."
E-mail ahamilton@dallasnews.com
But when we are talking about gang rape, trying to say that it woulda-coulda-shoulda been handled quietly is just plain disturbing.
Ah. So those po' black youths indulge in gang-rape and pedophilia as a way to pass the time? Well, I guess it's just a different culture and we have to accept that!
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