DURHAM, N.C. ‚Äö√Ñ√Æ Duke University President Richard Brodhead apologized Saturday for not better supporting the men’s lacrosse team and their families after three players were falsely accused in last year’s highly publicized rape scandal. Brodhead, speaking at the university’s law school, said he regretted Duke’s “failure to reach out” in a “time of extraordinary peril” after a woman accused three players of rape at a March 2006 party thrown by the team…. “Given the complexities of this case, getting the communication right would never have been easy,” Brodhead said…. “But the fact is that we did not get it right, causing the families to feel abandoned when they were most in need of support. This was a mistake. I take responsibility for it and I apologize for it.”
Talk about a swing and a miss, eh? When news that the Duke Lacrosse team was being investigated, Duke’s administration wasted no time in tossing the players overboard, sacrificing them to the realities of political expediency. It didn’t matter what the facts were. No, the important thing was to placate those interest groups demanding immediate and decisive action, damn the facts and full speed ahead. There was blood in the water, and the sharks were hungry. Combine that with accusations made by an African-American woman against wealthy, WHITE athletes at an exclusive private school…well, it doesn’t take a Ph.D. to figure where this was all eventually headed, does it?
What Duke University President Richard Broadhead did was to stick his finger up to test the political winds, and then he sacrificed the lacrosse team and it’s coach in order to keep the wolves at bay. While all manner of interest groups were demanding action YESTERDAY, no one seemed to take notice of the fact that this was a case shoddily built on a foundation of sand. A seriously unbalanced accuser whose only consistency was that she consistently change stories, a complete lack of physical evidence, and a District Attorney determined to turn his 15 minutes into something his Mama could be proud of…surely cooler heads could and should have prevailed? Yeah, right; if there’s one thing in short supply in this sorry saga, it’s moral courage.
A public apology is simply too little and far too late- unless it involves Broadhead committing ritual suicide afterward.
As authorities began to investigate the allegations, Brodhead and the university initially suspended the highly ranked team from play.
He later canceled the remainder of its season and ousted longtime coach Mike Pressler. Meanwhile, Durham County prosecutor Mike Nifong labeled the team “hooligans” as he searched for suspects.
But even as Nifong won indictments against players, it became clear the allegations had no merit.
State prosecutors determined in April the accuser’s story was a lie, and North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper called the three players innocent victims of Nifong’s “tragic rush to accuse.”
Nifong was disbarred in June for more than two dozen violations of the state bar’s rules of professional conduct, including withholding results of critical DNA tests, and resigned from office.
Richard Brodhead tossed an entire team and it’s highly respected coach overboard, and yet he’s still employed by Duke University. I’m sorry, but these public mea culpas just don’t cut it. When you sacrifice the careers and reputations of innocent people because various angry mobs are demanding it, you as a leader have failed- you’ve failed your university, the students and employees you represent, and yourself. How Brodhead can look at himself in the mirror without fighting the urge to play Russian Roulette on his living room floor is beyond me.
Moral courage? Richard Broadhead couldn’t define it if you put the Wikipedia entry for it in front of his face. Honestly, Broadhead shouldn’t be allowed to manage a Dairy Queen, much less a major American educational institution. The man has some serious penance to do…not that it’s ever going to happen.
Sadly, the only heroes in this scenario are North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper- who finally called bullshit on this madness- the players and their families, and former coach Larry Pressler. Man, if I were a litigator in North Carolina, I’d be thinking my shop has just come in, because there just isn’t enough money in Duke’s endowment to make everyone whole.
