Mayor Defends Handling Of Duke Case

City officials on Tuesday defended how the police department handled a woman's allegations that she was raped at a party thrown by Duke University's lacrosse team.

Mayor Bill Bell said nothing suggests that officers haven't vigorously investigated the case. His comments followed a report released by Duke on Monday concluding the university was slow to respond to the allegations partly because city police initially said the accuser "kept changing her story and was not credible."

"If they just walked away from it and hadn't attempted to pursue further investigation then that might merit some indication that they weren't taking it seriously," Bell said. "But, as far as I know, they've been trying to investigate and get information."
However, Bell still directed the city manager to ask police about the report, saying specifics were needed about which officers were involved and what they said.

The day after the March 13 team party where a 27-year-old black woman said she was raped, Durham police told campus officers that "this will blow over," the report said. The woman initially told police she was raped by 20 white men, then said she was attacked by three, the report said.

At a hospital hours after the party, a female Duke police officer tried to calm and reassure the accuser, the report said. The Duke officer said the woman was "crying uncontrollably and visibly shaken ... shaking, crying and upset." That behavior, the report said, "doesn't suggest that the case was likely to just 'go away.' "

Police told Duke officers that if any charges were filed, "they would be no more than misdemeanors," the report said.

But more than a month after the party, a grand jury indicted two team members on charges of rape, kidnapping and sexual assault. District Attorney Mike Nifong has said he hopes to charge a third person.

The report, commissioned by Duke's president and prepared by two former heads of universities, does not say who at the Durham Police Department cast doubt on the accuser's complaint.

"It's so easy to look back on this situation and second guess and realize what could have been," Sue Wasiolek, the dean of students told Amanda Lamb of CBS affiliate WRAL.

One of the report's authors, Julius Chambers, said the committee that prepared the report made no independent effort to speak with Durham police, and relied on material provided by campus officers.

Nifong and Durham police declined to comment Tuesday, but city manager Patrick Baker said police considered the allegations serious.

"It would seem to me if the state of mind of the Durham Police Department was going to be articulated in a report, you would probably want to speak with the Durham Police Department," Baker said.

Defense attorneys jumped on the report's details, calling the police's apparent questions about the accuser's credibility consistent with their investigation of her background, which includes a previous allegation of rape that did not lead to any charges.
But Scott Berkowitz, president of the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, a victim-rights group, said the first police officers to speak with a rape victim often don't have the training and experience needed to accurately judge the merits of a complaint.

"It's important to note that once the experienced folks got there and started investigating this, they found her story credible and concluded that a violent crime took place," he said.