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The Chronicle k THE INDEPENDENT DAILY AT DUKE UNIVERSITY
MONDAY, APRIL 17, 2006
ONE HUNDRED AND FIRST YEAR, ISSUE 135
Rowdy behavior typical of lax players Police enter Edens for Students report is known for culture interviews of alcohol abuse team
by
Andrew Davis
and Galen THE CHRONICLE
Lawyers question legitimacy of e-mail from player's account
Vaisman
A party-hard mentality and the heavy alcohol consumption that comes with it are the norm for many men’s lacrosse players, numerous students and administrators said. The lacrosse team was as visible as any social group on campus even before the national media swarmed Duke after rape allegations last month.
analysis
by
Durham Police Department officers
gained access to an Edens Quadrangle res-
Players frequent-
ly walk around with
girls—sometimes called ‘lacrosstitutes’ by their peers—in tow and proudly dis-
play the Duke Lacrosse name on their chests. Most players come from wealthy Northeast and Mid-Adantic suburbs where the bond fostered by the sport begins early. Still, the behavior of members of the team is not a sharp departure from a similar conduct exhibited by some other undergraduates, including members of some fraternities, both students and administrators said. The athletic department reports a 100-percent graduation rate for the team, and players frequendy go on to highly coveted jobs on Wall Street. Duke’s administration has been concerned about the lacrosse team’s culture of beer guzzling and out-ofcontrol partying from tailgates to dorm rooms to the streets off East Campus for some time. Fifteen of the 47 members of the team have been charged with misdemeanors, mostly for alcohol violations, noise violations and public urination. “I can’t think of an absolutely despicable, egregious offense, but the cumulative nature and the fact that the sanctions that were imposed by the coach and by the disciplinary process did not seem to have long-term effects,” said
Emily Rotberg THE CHRONICLE
Sue Wasiolek, dean ofstudents and assistant vice president for student affairs. The behavior is well-known by undergraduates, in part because of the players’ visibility at football tailgates. Exemplary of the team’s social presence on campus, players are credited with helping to transSPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE form tailgate from a small pre-game gathering to a campus-wide drinking event in Senior captain Dave Evans (top) and senior KJ. Sauer (above right) take part in raucous tailgate the last several years. “Laxers,” as they are frequently called activities, of which the lacrosse team is often a part. Players, such as senior William Wolcott SEE LACROSSE ON PAGE 4 (above, far left), also party at off-campus houses.
idence hall without executing a search warrant late Thursday night and attempted to interview lacrosse players, defense attorney Robert Ekstrand said Sunday. The officers hoped to confirm which members of the lacrosse team were not at the March 13 party at which three players allegedly gang-raped an exotic dancer, Ekstrand added. “They cornered a number of [players],” he said of the police. “One young man was interrogated in his room with the door closed, with his roommate having been excused by the police officers.” Ekstrand said to his knowledge the players promptly called their lawyers and did not talk to the police. The weekend was also marked by confusion about the origin of a suspicious e-mail sent from one of the player’s accounts and by defense lawyers preparing for District Attorney Mike Nifong to present his evidence to the Grand Jury as early as Monday. The e-mail sent from a player’s account, which read “sorry guys” in the subject line, contained a brief message: “I am going to go to the police tomorrow to tell them everything that I know,” it said. Ekstrand said the player denied sending the message—he said he was in class when the time-stamped message went out. Defense attorneys for the players have speculated that police are attempting to entrap the players. The DPD has e-mail account information for some team members from earlier in the investigation, Ekstrand said. DPD officials did not respond to requests for SEE ALLEGED RAPE ON PAGE 8
Freshman's guest ransacks Gilbert-Addoms by
Saidi Chen
THE CHRONICLE
Residents of Gilbert-Addoms Dormitory awoke Friday morning to find broken ceiling tiles above their heads, overturned trash cans on their floors and peanut butter smeared on their walls. According to a police report, the perpetrator—who was a guest of a resident in the dorm—was arrested by Duke University
Police Department officers at 4:48 a.m. on charges ofresisting, delaying and obstructing an officer. The perpetrator admitted that he had been smoking marijuana and taking pain killers, the statement read. The young man has since been banned from Duke’s campus. Students who live on the first floor of the dorm said they were awakened
around 2:30 a.m. by yelling and other noise disturbances. “A lot of times you hear drunk people walking down our hall making a lot of noise, but this noise didn’treally go away—it just got a lot louder,” said freshman Sophie Lehman. The suspect pounded on her door and shouted expletives, she added. Freshman Alex Senior invited the visi-
campus. Senior said he was asleep during the entire incident and only found out the next day.
tor to
“I have talked to him about it, and he feels bad,” Senior said. “The fact is, though, he was being an idiot that night.” The commotion also awoke freshman Katie Beck, who lives next door to SEE
GILBERT-ADDOMS ON PAGE 6