Charges dropped, but it's not over for Duke players
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By Jackie MacMullan
Boston Globe Columnist
April 12, 2007
Their lives are shredded, perhaps beyond repair, after languishing in legal limbo for 13 months, hated and condemned while everyone else gradually came to recognize what they had steadfastly been clinging to all along: the truth.
David Evans, Reade Seligmann, and Collin Finnerty are free now. Prosecutors yesterday dropped all charges against the three former Duke lacrosse players, who were accused of sexually assaulting an exotic dancer at an off-campus team party last spring.
North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, who has been in charge of the case since January, said there was no DNA evidence to link the three men, nor were there witnesses who would corroborate the story of the accuser, who contradicted her own testimony on multiple occasions.
"There were many points in this case," Cooper told reporters, "where caution would have served justice better than bravado."
Now that's what you call an understatement.
The Duke scandal will go down as one of the most hideous cases in recent history.
Everyone has paid a dear price: the athletes, their former coach, Duke University, its president, and rape victims everywhere, who now will have to combat yet another example of a woman whose cries of sexual assault rang hollow.
For that they can thank the accuser -- and Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong, who just happened to be up for reelection when he pursued the three players so zealously and recklessly that he was later forced to recuse himself from the case in the wake of ethics charges. Those charges include lying to investigators and withholding exculpatory DNA evidence from the defense.
Nifong's behavior was not only despicable, it may well have been criminal.
Former Duke coach Mike Pressler and his players have known for some time the charges would be likely dropped. Their overwhelming sentiment yesterday was relief, not jubilation.
It's not exactly an occasion that prompts one to pop open a bottle of bubbly.
Do you really think it's over for the players? It will never be. Twenty years from now, the allegations of rape, kidnapping, and sexual offense will follow these men through their own personal Wikipedia. It's more than unwanted spam; it's a stain that has branded them in indelible ink. No matter how many times you invoke the word "innocent," they are forever linked to a scandal that has cost them and their families hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees.
The cost to their psychological welfare is incalculable. They have been living in fear for more than a year that the lies of others would decimate their future. They have remained silent throughout, believing initially their university would support them. Instead, president Richard Brodhead, new to the job and feeling pressure from within the university as well as from a frenzied national media, turned his back on them.
Seligmann and Finnerty have spent the past year in academic limbo (Evans graduated last spring). They were initially suspended from Duke when the charges were filed, then invited back to campus when it became apparent the prosecution's case was unraveling. Don't hold your breath waiting for them to make a triumphant return to Durham.
The Baltimore Sun has reported the families have asked Duke to pay their legal fees. It would be a wise move on the university's part to comply. The last thing they need is another ugly legal mess.
Of course, if I were Pressler's lawyer, I'd have him consider legal action, as well. Pressler, who boasted a 100 percent graduation rate while he was at Duke, was fired for the mortal sin of having the audacity to stand by his players.
"The night I heard about it," Pressler told me recently, "I took my seniors aside. I looked each one of them in the eye and asked them what happened. Not one of them varied in their account. I knew right then and there they were telling the truth, and I haven't doubted them since."
Pressler lost his job, and overnight, his reputation. His program was characterized as out of control, and he paid the price for that perception.
The coach never denied his players used poor judgment, both for hiring strippers and engaging in underage drinking. He maintains he would have punished them accordingly, if he had ever been given the chance.
He wasn't.
He couldn't stop the rush to judgment that steamrolled over him and his program, a judgment fueled by a group of professors on campus who did not do their homework and a frenzied media contingent who did not do their homework, either. Like I said, there are no winners here. Let's hope we've all learned something.
As you may recall, it took some time for the accuser to identify her alleged assailants. Each Duke lacrosse player walked around for weeks wondering if he would be fingered for something he did not do. Many saw their grades suffer. Others are still in counseling.
Even after they were exonerated, the reverberations continued. Some seniors who previously had jobs lined up for when they graduated suddenly discovered those positions were on hold.
What was once a prestigious battle cry -- I'm a Duke lacrosse star! -- became a shameful secret. As one player told me, "It went from something I would have put at the top of my résumé to not mentioning at all."
Even so, lacrosse players past and present stood by the coach and the team, and kept waiting for the truth to emerge.
It was a very, very, very long wait.
You might think it's over now, but for those who have dealt with this case on a daily basis, they are just beginning to understand what kind of damage they have incurred.
They will try to move forward, of course. But move on? That's too much to ask.
In case you missed it, Mike Pressler is coaching again. Bryant University in Smithfield, R.I., was the only institution in the country courageous enough to hire him.
On second thought, perhaps there was one winner after all.
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Jackie MacMullan is a Globe columnist. Her e-mail address is macmullan@globe.com. |
