Wednesday, 5 April 2006

Season over, Pressler out, McFadyen apparently suspended

This just in to SN: the Herald-Sun reports that men’s lacrosse coach Mike Pressler has resigned and that the administration has decided to cancel the remainder of the lacrosse season, presumably in light of the latest developments in the case. The implication is also that Ryan McFadyen has been suspended from school on an interim basis, although apparently a direct statement of that action would violate FERPA.

More from the Chronicle here; brief statements from President Richard Brodhead and AD Joe Alleva are also online.

Duke under siege, day ten: the victim ID'd the attackers!?!

Brendan Nyhan points out a Charlotte Observer story that says that the alleged victim’s father went on Rita Cosby on Monday night and claimed that she had conclusively identified all three attackers. Brendan asks why 43 other players were asked to give DNA samples, but my question’s a little more fundamental: if three guys have really been picked out by the victim, why on earth aren’t they in jail? Then again, the father could be wrong.

More lacrosse morons

Well, now we know what that search in Edens 2C was all about:

Police obtained an e-mail from a confidential source sent from [Ryan] McFadyen’s Duke e-mail address March 14 at 1:58 a.m., right after the party.

“After tonight’s show, i’ve decided to have some strippers over to edens 2c,” the writer of the e-mail wrote, noting, however, there would be no nudity. “i plan on killing the [bitches] as soon as [they] walk in and proceeding to cut their skin off while [ejaculating] in my duke issue spandex.” [I slightly unredacted the Chronicle version of the quote here.]

Lovely. On the bright side, at least there would have been no nudity. And what’s up with the spandex reference?

The News & Observer provides their version of the story, which reports the defense angle on things:

Joe Cheshire, a lawyer representing one of the team captains, said the e-mail helps support the team's story. Team members told police, according to Cheshire, that they hired women to dance and those women left the party early.

"This e-mail, while the wording of it is, at best, unfortunate, if you read this e-mail and you also are aware of other e-mails that exist contemporaneous with these events, it's quite clear that no rape happened in that house," Cheshire said. "These boys were frustrated because they, as is already been reported, they thought these women had come and taken a bunch of money and started dancing and just decided to leave."…

Cheshire and other defense lawyers involved in the case have been critical of Nifong's public statements. He said the unsealing of the warrant today shows desperation on the part of investigators.

"If you see this case with things the police have not released, you see this case in a different light than the prosecutor going out there and saying, ‘they're guilty,'" Cheshire said. "Is it a horrible e-mail? Yes. Does it make the writer look good as a human being? Are there all kinds of moral and social issues that can be discussed about what went on that night? This e-mail does not in any way shape or form show that there was a violent sexual act that went on in that house. I would tell you that it in fact shows the opposite."

Sure, Joe, whatever…

Perhaps of more interest: the warrant for this search has more details on the allegations and the list of items siezed, including $60 cash and “piece of paper in vehicle — suckie suckie $5.00.” It also includes the full text of McFadyen’s email on page 7 of the warrant (I've adjusted the blockquote above accordingly).

Update: Aquaman writes:

I don't think this e-mail's author raped anyone. But the damage he's done to himself is just staggering. Think about it -- any future employer will Google him and find this. …

The author went to the prestigious Delbarton School in Morristown, New Jersey, before moving on to Duke. Both schools are probably in the process of removing all web mentions of him right now.

The lesson? Save your insane ramblings and scary threats for the phone.

Update 2: There is some speculation here that the quote is a riff on something from either American Psycho or Fight Club; having seen neither, I cannot judge, but it certainly wouldn’t have been out of place based on these quotes from American Psycho. Not really sure that helps McFadyen’s case all that much, though.

Update 3: A commenter at Through a Glass Darkly says that the “suckie suckie $5.00” reference is from South Park.

Finally, a real criminal record

UD points to today’s New York Times, which finds that one of the Duke lacrosse players physically assaulted a man in Georgetown last fall and is currently in a diversionary sentencing program. Now, if only Righteous Townie DA Mike Nifong could figure out some way to use this information to help him investigate the case (he allegedly went to law school—so hopefully he can figure this one out on his own), we might finally get somewhere.

Elsewhere, DukeObsrvr moves into new digs, the Chronicle editorial board takes shots at Nifong (stealing my schtick), a theme echoed in the letters to the editor, and the state NAACP president valiantly tries to make his organization relevant for the first time in a decade or so.