Authorities reveal e-mail message
DURHAM -- Less than an hour after a woman said she was raped at a Duke University lacrosse party, authorities say one of the team's players sent an e-mail message in which he talked about hiring strippers and killing them.
A lawyer representing one of the team's members said the e-mail, while in bad taste, does not show that a crime happened at the house, and in fact could help show what team members have said -- that no assault happened.
The text of the e-mail was included in a search warrant application investigators used to search the dorm room and apartment of team member Ryan McFadyen, a sophomore defenseman from Mendham, N.J.
According to the warrant, which was unsealed today, a confidential source sent investigators a copy of the e-mail, which they believe originated from McFadyen's Duke University e-mail address. It was sent at 1:58 a.m. on March 14, about a half hour after the woman, an employee of an escort service, told police she had been raped at the party where she had been hired to perform.
"Tomorrow night, after tonights show, ive decided to have some strippers over," the message read. "However there will be no nudity. i plan on killing bitches as soon as the walk in and proceeding to cut their skin off."
The message goes on to read that he would find the act sexually gratifying.
McFadyen's attorney could not be reached this morning. Joe Cheshire, a lawyer representing one of the team captains, said the e-mail helps support the team's story. Team members told police, according to Cheshire, that they hired women to dance and those women left the party early.
"This e-mail, while the wording of it is, at best, unfortunate, if you read this e-mail and you also are aware of other e-mails that exist contemporaneous with these events, it's quite clear that no rape happened in that house," Cheshire said. "These boys were frustrated because they, as is already been reported, they thought these women had come and taken a bunch of money and started dancing and just decided to leave."
Investigators used the warrant to search McFadyen's dorm room and car. Investigators seized posters, cash, computers, memory cards and a hard drive, papers and drawings and a disposable camera.
The reported rape has heightened weeks of tensions on and off campus. Attorneys for the players deny that any rape, assault or even sex occurred at the party, held at a North Buchanan Boulevard rental house shared by three of the team's captains. No charges have been filed.
Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong has said he is confident in the woman's story and a judge ordered all but one member of the team to submit to DNA tests. Those results are due back either this week or the next. Nifong said if charges are filed, it would likely be next week at the earliest.
Cheshire and other defense lawyers involved in the case have been critical of Nifong's public statements. He said the unsealing of the warrant today shows desperation on the part of investigators.
"If you see this case with things the police have not released, you see this case in a different light than the prosecutor going out there and saying, ‘they're guilty,'" Cheshire said. "Is it a horrible e-mail? Yes. Does it make the writer look good as a human being? Are there all kinds of moral and social issues that can be discussed about what went on that night? This e-mail does not in any way shape or form show that there was a violent sexual act that went on in that house. I would tell you that it in fact shows the opposite."
http://www.newsobserver.com/102/story/425493.html
Not quite a smoking gun, but it sounds incrimiinating to me!! The Durham DA has stood firm believing the victim's story.
I know that's right. Case Closed.
, he's only interested in getting paid.
but that excuse holds no weight here b/c there are too many sistas with children that I know personally that got their Bachelors and/or Masters without stooping too the lows that this sista did to get money. 
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