Police arrived at quiet house

Slur reported near players' residence

DURHAM -- When police visited a house near Duke University on March 14 to investigate a 911 call about racial slurs, they found the house -- where neighbors had witnessed a rowdy party earlier in the evening -- completely quiet.

The 911 call came about 30 minutes before a second 911 call led police to a woman who told them she had been sexually assaulted at that same residence, at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd., during a party held that night by members of the Duke men's lacrosse team. The house had been leased to three of the lacrosse players, and 46 team members have since been ordered to submit to DNA testing. Those test results are expected next week.

Police also have searched a dorm room and car on the Duke campus as part of their investigation, a university spokeswoman said Thursday. Warrants authorizing those searches have been sealed by a judge.

No charges have been filed in the case.

Police said they don't know who made the 911 call to report the racial slurs, and the complainant was gone when police arrived at the house. But Durham police spokeswoman Kammie Michael said Thursday that they are convinced the call was not made by the same woman who later said she was raped and sodomized by three men at the party.

Police released new details Thursday on what they found when responding to that first call:

A woman called police at 12:53 the morning of March 14 to report that a white man at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd. yelled a racial slur at her and a black friend as they passed the house.

Two officers, who were patrolling in the area, arrived at 12:55 a.m. and spent 11 minutes looking for the woman who called in the complaint, Michael said. The officers knocked on the door of the house, but there was no answer. They looked in the windows and walked through the yard and alley beside the house, Michael said.

They saw cups, beer cans and beer kegs. Officers spoke to a neighbor, who said there had been a party. A check of the neighborhood didn't lead to the woman who called 911, and Michael said the caller's information -- name, phone number or address -- did not appear on the dispatcher's computer when the call came in.

A lawyer representing one of the players raised suspicion about the two 911 calls, saying they were "mighty coincidental."

Durham lawyer James "Butch" Williams said he thinks the woman who initially called 911 to report the use of racial slurs also is involved in the rape investigation. He wouldn't go so far as to call the allegations "false reports," but he said it was suspicious that the caller knew the numbers to the house near where the slurs were shouted, though the house number is not easily seen from the street.

Williams, representing one of the team's captains who lived at the house, maintains there was not a rape at the party. He said there was no sexual activity whatsoever at the party. All three men who were living at the Buchanan Boulevard house have moved out, he added.

The incident was reported to have happened very late March 13, but two days lapsed before investigators searched the house and found broken fingernails, a purse and a cell phone belonging to the alleged victim.

Michael and other spokesmen for the Durham Police Department said investigators interviewed the accuser while she was at Duke Hospital, where she was examined. During the two days before the search, investigators followed up with the accuser, residents of the house and other possible witnesses as they developed probable cause for a search warrant.

Officers took out the search warrant the night of March 16 and served it the same night, according to court documents. Crime scene technicians were inside the house for more than seven hours, according to police records.