Duke Lacross Players Innocent, Accuser in Hiding

After a year of intense racial tensions, accusations, and theories, the Duke Lacrosse case is finally over. The North Carolina AG, Roy Cooper, held a news conference to announce that all charges had been dropped. He said, the athletes were innocent victims of a "tragic rush to accuse" by an overreaching district attorney. Adding, "There were many points in the case where caution would have served justice better than bravado," in a damning assessment of Durham County District Mike Nifong's handling of the sensational case. "This case shows the enormous consequences of overreaching by a prosecutor," Cooper said.

He went on to say his own investigation "led us to the conclusion that no attack occurred. I think a lot of people owe a lot of apologies to a lot of people," Cooper said. "I think those people ought to consider doing that."

The problem is that these three men have had their lives turned upside down and employment prospects hindered because of the false accusation of one woman. The woman had reportedly been hired in March 2006 to strip for the men at an off campus party. After some odd behavior due to drugs, the accuser was taken to the hospital where she was about to be placed in the Mental ward for observation. Upon learning this, she accused the Duke Lacrosse players of rape.

In the year up to this date, the accuser was shown pictures of only Lacrosse players, where she identified the three men. One of the men had a time stamped bank video showing he was not even present when she supposedly was being raped in a bathroom.

They found no DNA of any Duke Lacrosse player on her like there should have been with the type of rape she described. The original prosecutor, Mike Nifong, took her at her word, though he did not even speak to the victim for the first six months. He is now facing ethics charges that could lead to his disbarment.

The four points that led to the dismissal of the charges were:

1. The eyewitness identification procedures that had been used in the case against the three players were unreliable.

2. No DNA supported the woman's story,

3. No other witness corroborated it.

4. The woman contradicted herself.

Normally filing a false police report would be a chargeable offense, but Cooper said, she "may actually believe" the many different versions of the stories she has told. "We believe it is in the best interest of justice not to bring charges.

The accuser was unable to be located. She gave birth to a baby nine months after the false rape allegation. Apparently she conceived within two weeks of what would have been a tragic event. This was not the first time the accuser has accused others of raping her. She has a history of mental illness, which included a mental hospital stay.

Jesse Jackson, who at one time offered to pay for the accuser’s education has not been able to contact her, and would only say, “We just hope this traumatic experience for all involved ends with the minimum amount of damage.”

It would seem Jackson does not consider having been falsely accused and humiliated is not damaging enough.