The Duke Case

Lesley Stahl Talks To Parents Of Accused, Prosecution Forensics Expert

(CBS)  They all had bright futures. Reade Seligmann was an honors student; Collin Finnerty was extraordinarily talented; and senior David Evans, a team captain, was graduating, heading for Wall Street.

But it all came crashing down with their arrests last spring. They were paraded in perp walks before cameras, their mug shots on the covers of national magazines.

"Who can tell us about the very moment when they heard that their son was indicted?" Stahl asks the group of parents.

"The day the indictment came down, we were sitting in the attorney's offices in Durham, and when I heard the news at first, I – frankly – I collapsed," Phil Seligmann remembers. "Thought I'd suffered a heart attack."

Once the indictment came down, from the very beginning, the players tried to prove their innocence, voluntarily going to the police and giving samples of their DNA.

Reade Seligmann had an alibi for that night – time stamped photos, which appeared to show he had already left the party before the rape could have occurred. Collin Finnerty also had an alibi, but the parents say no one in Nifong's office wanted to hear about it.

"I mean, to this day, no one has spoken to Collin and Reade, or asked them anything about their whereabouts," says Mary Ellen Finnerty.

"Mr. Nifong, actually never even spoke to the attorney. What he did is, he sent out a messenger, or someone who works within his office to say, basically, 'I have no interest in anything you have to show me,'" says Kathy Seligmann.

At first, when the accuser identified David Evans, she said he had a moustache, which he didn't.

"Our lawyers did try repeatedly to show Mr. Nifong that our son did not have a moustache the day before, the week before, the month before the year before. Or that he had it afterwards," says Rae Evans.

The case was fueled by racial tension from the beginning; the first time the boys appeared in court, they were jeered and taunted.

And the Seligmann's felt there was danger inside the courtroom. They say their son Reade got a death threat.

"I had people standing behind me telling me that 'He's not gonna get out of this courtroom alive. You're not gonna get out of this courtroom alive.' In no uncertain terms," Phil Seligmann remembers. "'You're a dead man walking.'" … This is in a court of law."

With no DNA inking the players to a rape, the case rests largely on the credibility of the accuser. Ever since she picked the players out of a photo line-up at the police station, she has given conflicting accounts of the nature of the attack, how long it lasted, and the number of men involved.

60 Minutes has learned that she has a "long psychological history" and that she had taken anti-psychotic medications like Depakote and Seroquel.

"When I'm trying to get over the rage I am thinking about, so deeply, this young woman who has been abused by men all her life. And nobody has abused her more than Mike Nifong," says Rae Evans.

[mickey443]

how in the hell that you can say that about that girl if you dont now her how do you now that it was for drug money what you thing black women take there clothes off for money it dids not matter what i girl wear or how they dance it dont mean that men can go and put there hands on them and try to have *** with them and whats wrong with her image so you think all black girls should stay home and wacth there kids and it dont matter how many baby dad she have so go f ---- off and how you now that she have 3 baby dads

[donamaree-2009]

To the new elected prosecutor Mr. Ray Cooper:

Do America a favor and give us some light at the end of the tunnel and bring justice back to the courts. Dismiss this atrocity of a trial which was doomed by unethical behavior on Mr. Nifong's part, prosecute for the lies and revenge on both the strippers part. Unlike Mr. Nifong perhaps you can feed the press the truth, give these young men their reputations back from the condemnation of the groups who call them "rich brats" their obscene jealousies of their privileged lives is sickening. Let America turn the key in the door of justice for all, even if you are rich and white. The tables have turned in this country in a way that can cause an internal revolution in the future, make an example of this travesty and do whats right, not only for these young men and their families, but for all Americans. Unethical behavior, lies and deceit do not add up to without reasonable doubt.

[fflintstone4]

Rae Evan's final comments provide strong insight into the families and the accused individuals. Those words, "I'd say, with a smile on my face, 'Mister Nifong, you've picked on the wrong families...you will pay every day for the rest of your life." So she's saying white families with lots of money (if they can affort to send their kids to Duke) can and will do what they want and apparently enjoy it too. These three individuals may not have raped this young woman, but I know they aren't innocent angels either.

[thinkforself]

Sorry ....I had 3 things to say. Pardon my typos. Thank you! :-)

[thinkforself]

I just have to say two things: 1. The rap community is not what influences the male perception of the female...this is far older than that...Remember stripping, which is closely associated to prostitution is one of the OLDEST professions in the world. I don't think Rap, as music can claim that. Also, there a far less black strippers that white...disrespect is disprect [of self and others]. AGAIN, RACE is irrelevant. 2. Plainly put the girl was looking for a pay-day. Most people are of the impression, that every student attending Duke is wealthy. There are so many stories of young women (white, black, yellow, purple), trying to set up and/or trap a guy - celebrity or not. She probably figured this would provide her enough drug money...while she continues to receive assistance. Now, as a woman, I found that particular choice of profession,disgraceful, but it was not my choice. As a black woman - from an affluent background with a successful family and life [not just monetarily, I am so tired of people jumping onthis cause to contribute to the saving of the balck community, by globally lumping us into the same categories.

[hermit22]

I would not have to think twice about not going to apply for school at DUKE, and that would not be because of the stripper, it would be because they apparently condone nasty behavior in a frat house. "tut tut" welcome back boys."

[jfmr-2009]

Horray for Rae Evans!

[olemiss85]

can SEE why a woman could just loose her cool and let them have it, hit them up for rape, let the chips fall where they may. That is not right, but she may have felt that was her only weapon. I'm thinking worse of that frat house now that i did at the beginning of this story.
Posted by Hermit22 at 05:11 AM : Jan 21, 2007

You finally concede she lied but somehow still want to justify this blatantly wrong action because "she may have lost her cool" so we'll let her "hit them up for rape" and "let the chips fall where they may"? Did this really come from a sound mind. So acceptoing that you now agree she lied about the rape, if the "chips fell...that the boys were found guilty of a rape you now agree didn't occur, that's okay? You ......I can't even type it. Some one please tell this guy what nonsense this is.

[olemiss85]

Gee Hermie, you say you were innocent? How do we know you were innocent? Oh, that's right, because you say you were. Hmmm, seems that these 'frat boys" say they are innocent of rape and their words are backed by the DNA testing from DNA samples they voluntarily gave to the police before lawyers were involved. ( from the discovery provided by the State not the defendants). So why do we have to believe you and are not supposed to believe the lacrosse players. Because they threw a party some, some not all, consider to be in poor taste, their veracity is not as cedible as yours? How do we know you weren't robbed of money you stole from somebody else? Because you say so? Being a fair minded person, your supposition of me to the opposite, I will give you the benefit of the doubt. You were robbed of funds you had obtained legally. The boys threw a party that was legal. Just as innocent as you were, claim to have been. Why is it so hard to give them the benefit of the doubt?

[olemiss85]

Olemiss85, i thought of that. but i was innocent. the frat house might be innocent of rape, but they did put themselves in a questionable situation. They DID. I already thought of the difference. The frat house WAS into something nasty.they were acting like jackasses. walking down the street IS innocent. drinking and setting up a strip party is not. it may be legal, but it is not innocent.
Posted by Hermit22 at 03:19 AM : Jan 21, 2007
Since when is it a crime to act like a jackass? Y Doing something nasty is not illegal per se. Porn movies, smut magazines, STRIPPERS... can all involve doing something nasty but it's a matter of taste not jurisprudence. I didn't say the frat boys acted like the examples I gave. I said even if they did everything I wrote... it still doesn't justify the making of a false accusation. You still don't get it. You never will. If,If, If... the "frat boys" (you can't even get this fact right,it was a lacrosse team party) acted out every example I suggested, do you mean to tell me that woman was still justified in crying rape? It was her only weapon? Her weapon against what? She was already away from the party before she cried rape. She didn't cry rape to get away from the party, she had to be carried out because she was too intoxicated to leave on her own. There are pictures and the testimony of the other dancer to this effect which are unchallenged by even that idiot Nifong.

[jfmr-2009]

First of all theses men are INNOCENT! There was no rape, one of the boys has stamped times saying he left the house, the other boy did not have a mustasche. You are right about the image these black girls have. She should not be stripping for drug money, she should be in her home taking care of the three children she had with three differnt men.

[no_angel-2009]

First of all, these men are not innocent, what they are is not guilty of rape. The women should be prosecuted for filing a false police report, because that is what they did. Not to mention, they have made even harder for women who really have been raped to come forward. More importantly, young women, especially young black women need to be taught that just because the media has continued to portray them as oversexed, poll dancing idiots, which are on earth solely to be verbally, physically and sexually abused, does not mean that is their function. These women should be taught that you attend a university to learn, not to get on a pole. Maybe if the black community addressed how black males, more specifically the rap community, presents black women in the media, these women would not be taking off their clothes in front of a group of white misogynists in the first place.

[jfmr-2009]

Dr. Brian Meehan should also go to jail with Nifong for hiding the fact that the boy's DNA did not match any of the DNA found in the underwear or on the body of the stripper! Withholding this evidence caused many, many, months of horror for these families!
There was no case on April 10th yet the boys were indited on April 17th! How horrible, how can those men have a clear conscious, what they put those families through.

[jfmr-2009]

I think the President of Duke Uiversity should step down or be fired! Nifong should pack his bags and retire or go to jail for his holding evidence in this case.

[jfmr-2009]

Many men go to strip clubs. What the boys did was have her come to the house, poor judgement I agree, but it is nothing out of the ordinary that men do. The facts are on the table, no rape, she's a liar, she has costs the courts and families now nearly millions of dollars to clear their sons names who are INNOCENT. The stripper and her friend should spend the rest of their lives in jail for this ridiculous outrage on INNOCENT boys.

[jfmr-2009]

Tt costs over $43,000 to send your child to Duke University. I would think many, many, times before I sent my sons to that college or any other near there. The Duke boys are INNOCENT and they were used by the stripper and her friend, and the stripper and her stripper friend were USED by Nifong to get re-elected. Duram should wake up and realize that! Look at the facts. There was no rape, the boys left, the stripper is a drug addict, a liar, and should go to jail and have her children taken away from her by the courts.

[hermit22]

olemiss85, i just reread your 1:38am Jan 21 post.
i have never thought it was anywhere near ok to charge someone with rape if it didn't happen, but after rereading your description of what may be par for the coarse at a strip ain't-no-party,
i can SEE why a woman could just loose her cool and let them have it, hit them up for rape, let the chips fall where they may. That is not right, but she may have felt that was her only weapon. I'm thinking worse of that frat house now that i did at the beginning of this story.

[hermit22]

olemiss85, what is illogical, is for you to bring up "in poor taste", then when i agree with that, for you to insist you don't agree with that because i agree. it seems like that is the basic core of predjudice. "if hermit agrees with it, than of course i won't agree with it." what is really mind boggeling is that you said it in the first place.

i might be loosing the 3 brain cells i've been opperating on.

[hermit22]

i don't mind admitting to being ignorant of alot of this stuff, like that "party" according to your description was alot more insidious than i would have ever thought, but it is NOT "hate" to question the frathouse behavior.

i think anyone on a jury should be allowed to ask questions, NOT have to come up with a verdict based on what lawyers squirrel around with.

[hermit22]

olemiss85, is it slanderous for you to say "the functionally illiterates....blogging away idiotically...."