Duke U.: Addicts Everywhere
Duke University: Addicts Abound
How can we know who is guilty when addicts are everywhere”
There were many stories over the past two months that qualify for top billing. Zacarias Moussaoui leads the list as a child of an alcoholic who grew up to wage war against the greatest country ever. Rush Limbaugh got off almost scot-free on drug charges, while continuing to verbally attack other addicts and their suppliers. Alex and Rhoda Toth, winners of a $13 million lotto jackpot, were indicted on charges of tax fraud after declaring bankruptcy during the years they are accused of failing to report all their income. U.S. Representative Cynthia McKinney (Democrat) went berserk yet again and former Illinois Governor George H. Ryan (Republican) was convicted on an extraordinary array of bribery charges. (You”ll find more on these and other stories in the “runners-up” and “under watch” sections below.) But addict v. addict makes the top pick: certain Duke University lacrosse players and the strippers they hired for a party on March 13.
Players Collin H. Finnerty, 19, and Reade William Seligmann, 20, face charges of first-degree rape and kidnapping. Finnerty’s arrest follows an incident last November in which he and two friends hurled anti-gay epithets, leading to an attack in which the victim of the verbal abuse was physically injured. Finnerty avoided serving jail time by agreeing to a diversion program, which is now at risk of revocation. Where there is hatred, especially toward those of other races and sexual orientations, there is frequently alcoholism. This is particularly true if hatred is acted upon with violence.
The Duke team has a history of problems. Nearly half of its 47 players, 46 of whom are white, have been cited for mischief ranging from DUIs to public urination. The co-captain, Daniel Flannery, allegedly violated a city noise ordinance”a good clue to a lack of concern for the rights of others while under the influence. Witnesses to the party of March 13 claim it was lewd, drunken and filled with racial slurs. After the party, one of the men suggested in an e-mail that they hold more parties in which the players should skin and kill exotic dancers. As in riots and other commotions, addiction best explains the behaviors of those who lead others to cause trouble. With so many problems, while the odds of alcoholism in half the players are remote, the ratio is likely significantly higher than the 10% in the overall U.S. population.
On the other hand, the alleged victim, a 27-year-old black student at a predominately black college across town, had a tell-tale run-in with the law in 2002. After giving a taxi driver a lap dance at a Durham strip club, she stole the man’s car and led law enforcement on a high-speed chase. According to reports, a deputy thought the chase was over when she turned down a dead-end road. Instead, according to the police report she tried to run him over when he exited his vehicle. Her blood alcohol level registered over .16 per cent, which in conjunction with driving (attempted murder not required) is virtually a 100% indication of alcoholism. She admitted guilt, paid restitution and served time in jail.
The players” lawyers claim to have photographic evidence showing the accuser was drunk and already injured before the alleged rape. While the pictures have not yet been shown to the public, everyone seems to agree that she was visibly inebriated when she left the party. Fellow stripper Kim Roberts, 31, who apparently tried to drive her home, admitted the accuser was too incoherent to even tell her where she lived. Just one hour after the incident, she was reportedly passed out in Roberts” car.
Rape and false accusations are among the greatest perversions in which practicing alcoholics engage. It matters not that the accuser is a “decent and credible human being,” as her lawyer for the 2002 incident, Woody Vann, claims. The fact that Finnerty looks like a decent young man in pictures is irrelevant. If the woman has alcoholism, she’s perfectly capable of making a false accusation. If the young man has this disease, he’s capable of committing rape. All addicts are capable of anything regardless of background, upbringing, belief systems and morality to which they would normally adhere after a few years of sobriety.
The facts so far suggest that if a rape occurred, it was not committed by either Finnerty or Seligmann. Defense lawyers claim to have evidence that the indicted men were either not at the off-campus house where the alleged attack occurred, or were not there long enough to have engaged in the act. One was purportedly photographed by an ATM camera and another had a restaurant receipt during or close to the time of the alleged attack. Witnesses, including a taxi driver, offer alibis. Team members identify Seligmann as one of five players who wasn”t even at the party.
Then why were they arrested” Apparently, a medical examination of the woman found injuries consistent with rape. On the other hand, District Attorney Mike Nifong presented the alleged victim with a lineup consisting exclusively of photos of the lacrosse players, allowing zero chance to really test her credibility by giving her the option to select someone with no connection to the team. The grandstanding D.A. announced he was having DNA collected from all the players and boldly predicted the test results would identify the guilty. Although there was no match to the clothing or body of the accuser, the arrests were made. (Some of the victim’s defenders suggest that the rapists all wore condoms. Sure, drunk young men always put on condoms before committing rape.) Nifong appeared to have learned a thing or two from New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer when he told reporters that he was not dissuaded from the negative test results and said “I believe a sexual assault took place.” Forget about the idea that justice requires that the accused be presumed innocent until proven guilty, even by a top law enforcer who happened to be campaigning for reelection. (And in whom political behaviors may be indistinguishable from alcoholic ones.)
Fellow stripper Roberts, who at first said she doubted a rape occurred, seems to have realized she could make some hay by changing her story. Upset about leaks of both dancers” criminal pasts, she said she wonders about the character of the defense attorneys and said, “I think they”re guilty”[although] I can”t say which ones”.” She had e-mailed a public relations firm asking how she might ‘spin this to my advantage.” Eight days after the party she was arrested on a probation violation stemming from a 2001 conviction for embezzling $25,000 from a company where she worked as a payroll specialist. (Recall from the analysis in my first book, Drunks, Drugs & Debits, the odds of alcoholism in someone committing a felony are 80-90%.) A judge subsequently eliminated a requirement that a 15% fee be paid to a bonding agent, a change to which D.A. Nifong tacitly agreed.
The Duke case is reminiscent of the Haidl gang-rape trial (see http://www.preventragedy.com/PAGES/TAR/008.mar05.html) in which it seems almost everyone involved has alcoholism. Too often, the criminal justice system pits addict against addict, who are represented and judged by other addicts. Alcoholics, regardless of their position or how honest they may be in sobriety, cannot be trusted. Therefore, the criminal justice system needs to be cleaned up. Every law enforcer from police and correctional officers to Chiefs of Police should be randomly and regularly tested, with those failing offered an appropriate choice. This includes even District Attorneys and Attorneys General.