Video may aid players' defense

Club tape surfaces in Duke rape case

A woman identified as the accuser in the Duke lacrosse rape case performed an athletic pole dance at a Hillsborough strip club at the same time that the accuser was visiting hospitals complaining of intense pain from being assaulted.

A time-stamped video shows a woman at The Platinum Club on March 26. The club's former security manager, H.P. Thomas, identified her as the accuser.

The video, reviewed by The News & Observer, shows a limber performer. The same woman told doctors at UNC and Duke hospitals around that time that she had been beaten and assaulted and was racked with pain.

The accuser, a single mother enrolled at N.C. Central University, charged that three men gang raped, assaulted and choked her in a bathroom at a lacrosse team party that began late on the night of March 13.

Three lacrosse players were charged with rape, sexual assault and kidnapping: David Evans, 23, of Bethesda, Md; Collin Finnerty, 20, of Garden City, N.Y.; and Reade Seligmann, 20, of Essex Fells, N.J.

All players have strongly maintained they are innocent and have called the woman's accusations lies.

Linwood Wilson, the investigator for District Attorney Mike Nifong, said Friday that he has watched the video but could not say with certainty that it was the accuser dancing.

At trial, defense lawyers could show the March 26 video to jurors to undercut what the accuser told doctors and nurses in the days and weeks after the party.

The woman has not spoken publicly since an interview with The N&O in March. The newspaper does not name people listed on police reports as victims of sexual assaults. The following account of the woman's visits with doctors, nurses and police is based on documents from Nifong's investigative files that have been turned over to the defense.

Reports of pain

The woman was seen in the Duke Hospital emergency room the morning of March 14. She said she was gang raped but not hit or struck. She reported that she was in excruciating pain, rating it a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10. Nurses and doctors, however, found no obvious discomfort and no associated symptoms of pain, such as grimacing, sweating, or changes in vital signs or posture.

The next evening, March 15, a friend drove the woman to UNC Hospitals where she told doctors that she had been gang raped and knocked to the floor several times, at one point hitting her head on a sink. She said the men assaulted her with hands and fists. She said that she was very drunk that evening and that her neck was very painful when she sobered up, and her legs were wobbly. She reported neck pain of 7 on a scale of 1 to 10.

One physician wrote, "Due to the patient's long psychological history, she is at very high risk of narcotic abuse, and at clinic, we have recommended not to prescribe the patient any narcotics."

A second physician prescribed the muscle relaxant Flexeril and 15 doses of Percocet, a powerful narcotic painkiller.

On March 16, two Durham police officers interviewed her at her home.

Police narrative

In a typewritten narrative of the interview produced in July, Sgt. Mark Gottlieb gave a detailed portrait of a woman in excruciating pain: "The victim had a very slow gate [sic] that was obviously painful while she was walking. Her facial expressions conveyed her pain as she ambulated. ... The victim had to take time to position herself carefully on the sofa so that her exterior portion of either hip was making contact with the cushion. Anytime her bottom touched the sofa cushion while repositioning during our visit, she groaned and had a facial expression consistent with pain."