DURHAM, N.C., May 9 (UPI) -- A report finds that administrators at Duke University in North Carolina were slow to respond to rape charges involving the lacrosse team.
Durham police may be partly responsible because they suggested to university police that the accuser was not credible, the Durham (N.C.) Herald-Sun reported. Duke administrators also learned late that the accuser, a college student working as a dancer, is black.
The report was prepared by Julius Chambers, a civil rights lawyer and former chancellor of North Carolina Central University; and William G. Bowen, president of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and former president of Princeton University at the request of Duke's president, Richard Brodhead.
"There are reports from several sources that members of the Durham police force initially made comments to Duke police officers and others to the effect that the complainant 'kept changing her story and was not credible'; that 'if any charges were brought, they would be no more than misdemeanors'; and that 'this will blow over,'" Chambers and Bowen said.
