Alleged Rape of NCCU Student: (Duke Scandal)

[PerfectVerse06]

Dad: Broomstick used on dancer

Object cited in TV talk apparently not a focus of past police searches

MARK JOHNSON
mjohnson@charlotteobserver.com

DURHAM - The father of the accuser in the rape case involving Duke University lacrosse players said his daughter was raped with a broomstick during a party last month, and that explains defense lawyers' claims that no DNA from players was found on her.

The woman's father, appearing on MSNBC's "Rita Cosby Live & Direct" Tuesday night, said his daughter told him that when three team members raped and sodomized her, they also used a broom.

The father said he learned about the broom from others, "and then she told me afterwards because she didn't want me to know that part," he said.

Durham civil rights activist Victoria Peterson told the Observer on Wednesday that an investigator in the case told her the woman had been sodomized "with an object."

"He did not say a broom, just an object," said Peterson, who has become a friend and adviser to the woman's family since the party. "He told me she wasn't just raped, she was terribly sodomized."

When reached by the Observer on Wednesday at his home, the woman's father said he was leaving for a doctor's appointment and couldn't talk.

Defense lawyers for the players were not available or did not return phone calls for comment. Police officials also would not comment.

In papers filed with the court, police who searched the Buchanan Boulevard house where the party occurred made no mention of seizing a broomstick. And a broomstick was not among the items that police said they wanted to seize when they applied for the search warrant.

The woman's father also said in the TV interview that his daughter had considered dropping the case because of the immense pressure from all the attention and public debate.

"She has talked about it. As a matter of fact, she told me it was getting to be too much on her," the father said. "She couldn't take it. So far she's still hanging in there though."

Peterson said she's spoken with the accuser twice and found her "under great duress. She's depressed. She's crying. She needs help; this lady is out of it."

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlot...s/14438495.htm