Gathering storm responding to alleged gang rape of NCCU student
http://www.nccu.edu/campus/echo/c-rape.html
Students gather at NCCU to discuss response to alleged rape, March 29. Forum was led by members of VOX: Voice for NCCU.
(Photo: Bryson Pope/Echo Staff Photographer)
From Echo Staff Reports
POSTED 03/30/2006 3:30 AM EASTERN STANDARD TIME
By: Deneesha Edwards and Rony Camille
Echo Editor-In Chief and Asst. Echo Editor
Duke U. President Richard Brodhead and Duke U. Director of Athletics Joe Alleva at March 28 press conference.
(Photo: Christopher Wooten/Echo Staff Photographer)
In a Wednesday evening interview, NCCU Chancellor James H. Ammons said he was disturbed by the possibility that an NCCU student might have been the victim of such a brutal crime.
?There?s no place for racial discrimination or sexual violence,? Ammons said. ?We stand firm in our stance.?
Earlier Wednesday in a meeting organized by the student group, VOX: Voices of NCCU, about 50 NCCU students gathered to strategize ways of supporting the alleged victim. The student organization, which is dedicated to raising awareness of domestic violence, plans to hold a candlelight vigil April 3.
The student, a mother of two children, was hired from an unnamed escort service with another woman to dance at a party at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd., a house owned by Duke University and rented by captains of the lacrosse team. The house had a reputation in the neighborhood for its raucous parties, and police have been called to the residence four times since September 2005.
The incident, which has drawn national media attention, has created a firestorm across Durham and on the campus of Duke University, where hundreds of members of the community and Duke University students have been holding candlelight vigils, protest rallies and placing flyers on the house.
?We as a University do not accept this,? said NCCU hospitality and tourism junior Maya Jackson, a VOX: Voices of NCCU member. ?This is an issue that affects all of us.?
According to the police application for a search warrant, the women went to the house to dance for five men, but when they arrived she said there were more than 40 men in the house.
While she and the other dancer started to perform the men started making racial slurs and became aggressive.
The women became concerned their safety and decided to leave, but one of the suspects apologized and talked them into staying and dancing as they got into their vehicle.
Once inside the two women were separated. The student said she was pulled into the bathroom by two males who closed the door. Three males were in the bathroom and one said ?Sweetheart, you can?t leave.?
She said she was hit, kicked, strangled and sexually assaulted anally, vaginally and orally for approximately 30 minutes.
A phone call was placed at 1:22 a.m. March 14 by a security guard when the victim arrived in a vehicle at a Durham Kroger grocery store.
Jason Bissey was on the porch next door to the house during the party and saw the women. He told the News & Observer some of them were saying they wanted their money back.
?When I was outside, one guy yelled at her ? ?Thank your grandpa for my cotton shirt,? ? he said.
After finding out the women were raped he said he wished he would have called the police so they might have prevented the incident.
On March 23, Durham police collected DNA samples from 46 members of the lacrosse team.
District Attorney Mike Nifong will be taking charge of the prosecution and is pushing to get the DNA results back as quickly as possible. The results are being expedited at the State Bureau of Investigation lab in Raleigh and are expected Monday.
?Every rape is a serious case,? Nifong told the Herald Sun. ?But some speak to the community in a different manner. This is one of them.? Nifong described the racial aspect of the incident as ?particularly abhorrent.?
No one has been charged as of March 29, but police say that they think that at least three men are responsible according to the search warrant application. The allegations are felonies. The crimes described on the search warrant include first degree forcible rape, first degree kidnapping, first degree forcible sexual offense, common law robbery and felonious strangulation.
Members of the team did admit to hiring the exotic dancers and having underage drinking at the residence, but in a statement issued by the team captains they unequivocally deny that a sexual assault or rape occurred. They describe the allegation as ?totally and transparently false ? the DNA results will demonstrate that these allegations are absolutely false.?
According to Durham county court records, team members have been charged with 15 criminal violations for offenses related to underage drinking, public urination, noise, and other alcohol-related violations. In most cases the students were given deferred prosecution, an agreement that gives them probation and required community service.
Tuesday Duke University president Richard H. Brodhead announced in Duke University?s Old Trinity Room in the West Union Building that the season will be suspended for the top ranked lacrosse team until the facts of the case are clearer.
?In this painful period of uncertainty, it is clear to me, as it was to the players, that it would be inappropriate to resume the normal schedule of play,? said Brodhead. ?Sports have their time and place, but when an issue of this gravity is in question, it is not the time to be playing games.?
Ammons said Duke University and NCCU have had an extremely close and strong relationship. He said the two Universities work on several community program collaboratively.
Ammons said that NCCU will establish a student support fund for the alleged victim?s future educational and family needs.
?Our hearts go out to her, and we?ll do everything to support her,? he said. ?We throw our arms to our student with moral and financial support.?
