Sometimes greed is so obvious that it doesn’t need to be pointed out:
Lead attorney Chuck Cooper said the private university turned its back on the players to protect the school’s image.
“These young men want an acknowledgment that they were wronged by institutions and individuals that they trusted to treat them honestly,” Cooper said in a statement. “They were victimized by a corrupt investigation that ignored or suppressed evidence that would have cleared them.”
The lawsuit filed on behalf of 38 unindicted players and nine members of their families seeks unspecified damages for invasion of privacy, emotional distress and other injuries. Cooper planned to discuss the lawsuit later Thursday at a news conference in Washington, D.C.
The players accuse Duke of ignoring, suppressing and discrediting evidence that proved the players innocence, with idly standing by while the players suffered abuse and harassment on campus, and with imposing discipline that implied the team was guilty. Duke suspended and then canceled the highly ranked team’s season in the wake of the rape allegation.
Remember, none of these lacrosse players were charged with anything. They are claiming that because the former district attorney conducted a witch hunt against their three teammates, they are entitled to compensation as well.
Its a bit of a reach, but these guys might have a case against the City of Durham, but I don’t think they have a prayer against the school. The school canceled the team’s season during the course of the investigation, but by the time the allegations were overcome by a mountain of evidence showing their falsehood, it was too late to do anything. The school was in a no-win situation; if they had not canceled the season and it turned out that the players were guilty as charged, they would have caught hell for not suspending the team. In any case, I don’t think that missing a season of lacrosse constitutes egregious enough harm to warrant an award of cash to the players. The school had no control over the conduct of the district attorney’s investigation and had no say in whether or not the case would go to court.
This reminds me of the idiots who keep claiming that they are due slavery reparations because their long-dead relatives were once mistreated. Just like these players, they haven’t suffered 1/100th as much as the people who were actually involved, yet they want all the money they can get for other people’s suffering.
These people should take their Duke degree and move on with their lives.
