Howard of NEW YORK, NY sandwr1, are you kidding me? They were at an off campus house the hired strippers who happened to be black, they argued w/ them and we still don't know if racial slurs were used by the black dancers or the white players. so by your accounts the duke team is at fault? They had a party w/ strippers bad call yes but you are something special if you feel what happen was their fault. I hope you have children and I hope they are never put in the situation these players were put in. Were these kids angels? Maybe not but they weren't rapist either. You and people of your ilk are whats wrong w/ America today,you jump to conclusion faster than Nifong can hold a press conference. What I enjoy most is hearing people back track and still try to put the blame on Duke and the team. To anyone who is hiring a stripper please make sure she is not crazy make sure you are not white and attend a good school because accroding to this hump you are guilty of something. I'd love to see the view from your glass house you herbie handcock.

VOTE FOR SANJAYA! report abuse

sandwr1 of Portland, ME Duke Lacrosse and Duke University were not innocent bystanders, struck by a lightning rod. The Duke Lacross Team is still guilty of racist and sexist attacks on these two young women, even if a sexual assault did not take place. Witnesses heard the Duke men yelling racial slurs and the other dancer confirms the team threatend them. They also specifally requested Black dancers. All of this took place in campus owned housing. While these three young men have been unfairly treated by Nifong, the lacrosse team as a whole is most at fault for creating the situation. report abuse

Howard of NEW YORK, NY When do the duke players go Oprah? When do Al and Jesse apolgize?

It's America love it or leave it?

The 1 thing that I have faith in is that Nifong is done and the 3 young men are backing up the Brinks trucks as wee speak.

Justice is now LAWSUIT!!!!report abuse

Reverb of Haverhill, MA The degree of public and media outrage over this Duke case versus what Don Imus said about the Rutgers women B-ball players is truly appalling. What happened to these Duke kids is 1000 times worse than what happened to the Rutgers women, but you wouldn't know that from the media coverage, and the feigned outrage by the media execs and the racial arsonists known as Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson.

The woman in this rape case falsely accuses 3 men of rape, ruins their reputations (at least for now) and SHE KNEW it was a lie, and she will get off scott free.

Don Imus makes a stupid, racial/sexist derogatory comment, and his 30+ radio career is over just like that. And then you can turn on your local urban hip-hop, rap/crap station and hear stuff that is worse than that, but that is OK as long as no one feels to "offended" by it.

What is worng with this country?report abuse

Jim of Gray, ME I would love for the the DA and the stripper to be sued and prosecuted. I would also love for the players to sue Nancy Grace and Gretta Van Sustrian for slander as well. Those two vampires are the absolute worst in stirring up the pot to get a conviction on TV instead of in the court room. report abuse

Eric of Phila, PA
I think it's disgraceful that most of the leaders at their own school sold them out.
ESPN reported that Coach K went to the Duke university president and offered to stand up for the innocence of these kids in the media, but the university president told him to keep his mouth shut.

If the stripper and the DA get sued by the three real victims in this case, I won't be crying for them (the stripper and the DA).


Also, the apparently commonplace media practice of simply reporting press releases (without doing any testing of their accuracy) made this outcome worse than it otherwise would have been. Don't believe everything you read in the paper.report abuse

Reverb of Haverhill, MA Darren-
There is a big world out there, maybe you should start paying attention to it. Things that happen outside of Maine do affect you, like it or not.

So you want the PPH only to report on Maine stories? What a great way to inform yourself about what's going on and broaden your horizons. Would you rather have another story about what the members of the Portland school committee have been up to? 3 white guys being falsely accused of rape by a black woman IS certainly a newsworthy story these days, I don't see how you could argue otherwise. Why does that seem to bother you so much?report abuse

Jim Moore of Brunswick, ME As you say, "the coverage was numbing."
Was that because none of the media folks did anything beyond parrotting Nifong's allegations?

If Nifong hadn't been caught concealing evidence regarding DNA tests which excluded the accused players, the "numbing coverage" would certainly have conditioned potential jurors (and the country at large) to favor convicting these innocent college students.

Kinda reminds me of how the office of Maine's Attorney General acted. They didn't merely hide the DNA evidence; days after Dechaine filed an appeal, they incinerated biological evidence that could have strengthened Dennis Dechaine's effort to get a new trial -- one where a jury hears ALL the evidence.

At least North Carolina's attorney general had the character to do the right thing. I wonder whether he'd be open to running for attorney general in Maine.
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Greg Greg of Portland, ME I've got news for you. Guilty until proven innocent, happens every day in Maine. And for the same reason as the Duke LaCrosse case: There is no penalty for women who file false public reports.

Witness statements, affadivits, from female "victims" of so-called domestic violence, are good enough to warrant arresting the target of the affadavit, but when they later fail scrutiny there is no consequence for submitting a false public record. The consequence to many Dads, Fathers, Husbands, and their children, are no less disasterous than to these college students, if not more. The students didn't lose their homes, their children aren't being deprived of maintaining a meaningful relationship with both of their parents. They aren't being subjugated to support a family they've been excluded from.

Of course, this newspaper story omits the part about, now that this is over, what is going to happen to the false accuser? Nothing! Other media sources have suggested, intent to file a false public record might be hard to prove, because the accuser actually believes one or several of the various stories she told. What difference does that make? If I rob a bank and when caught say I believed it was my own money that I was taking, would that exonerate me? Of course not.

"Trapped in a Kafkaesque nightmare" for 13 months? How would you like 18 years?

(Wikipedia) Kafla: The adjective refers to anything suggestive of Kafka, especially his nightmarish type of narration, in which characters lack a clear course of action, the ability to see beyond immediate events, and the possibility of escape. The term's meaning has transcended the literary realm to apply to real-life occurrences and situations that are incomprehensibly complex, bizarre, or illogical.

Or really simple, like your spouse who's opinion differs from yours must therefore be abusing you. No problem, just file a false police report, works like a charm. report abuse

Darren McLellan of Cape ELizabeth, ME Hey NeoCon
How many black men are sitting in jail right now on false charges? How many white people are sitting in jail on false charges? How many innocent people in the US have been put to death.
People like you are the real evil in this country. report abuse