There are new Duke lacrosse discrepancies

I hope someone with a love for advanced math and a calculator is keeping a count of all the discrepancies in the Duke lacrosse case.

Here are the latest.

Conflicting accounts by the accuser's father and the man reported to have driven her to the party concerning the accuser’s actions and whereabouts during the hours immediately preceding her arrival at the party at which she says she was gang-raped.

The conflicting accounts appear in two separate Raleigh News & Observer news stories.

Let’s start with today’s N&O story containing the account of the man said to be the driver:

Accuser seemed OK early on, driver says

Excerpts:

Brian Taylor, who met the accuser at a Super Bowl party two years ago, said he spent an hour and a half with her before driving her to the party where she was hired to dance. (Bolds in this post mine)

"She had called me a few hours earlier, asking me if she could use my place to get ready," Taylor said Friday.

Taylor said he did not know how the woman, a 27-year-old N.C. Central University student with two children, got to his home March 13. But he said that when she arrived about 9 p.m., he noticed nothing unusual about her demeanor. He did not say whether they consumed any alcohol.

Taylor had known for a while that his guest was a dancer. He and a male friend had watched her perform at clubs in Smithfield and Hillsborough.

As he sat in front of his PlayStation console March 13, the accuser showered behind a closed door and modeled at least two negligees for her host, he said.

"She asked my opinion," he said. "The first one was this black outfit, and I said, 'No.' When she came out in the red one I said, 'That's better.' "

It was 10:45 p.m., Taylor estimated, when they left for 610 N. Buchanan Blvd.

"The deal was for me to take her over there for about a two-hour show," he said. "She was supposed to call me to come pick her up."

Taylor did not hear from her again until 7 a.m. the next day. She was at Duke Hospital.

Now lets look at part of a May 19 N&O story of the accuser’s father’s account of her activities and whereabouts during those same few hours The N&O reported today Bryan Taylor described:

In an interview earlier this week, her father said he saw his daughter a few times March 13. That afternoon, he said, she picked up her two children from elementary school.

About 9:30 p.m., he said, she brought the children to their grandparents' house for the evening.

"She was fine," he said.

After their arrival, he and his daughter took a short car ride about 10 p.m. to a neighborhood convenience store at Cornwallis Road and South Roxboro Street. He bought a pack of cigarettes but said he did not recall what his daughter purchased.

When the two returned to his house, the woman said she had to go out and wouldn't return until 1:30 a.m.

He said he does not know whether she left in her own car or someone picked her up. He said she did call him to say she safely reached her destination -- about 11:30 p.m., about the start of a late-night talk show he was watching.

The man said he did not know his daughter was working as an escort that night. She didn't return until late the morning of March 14, the father said.

Did you get all that?

Taylor the driver says in today’s N&O the accuser came to his place “about 9 p.m.” He spent “about an hour and a half with her,” during which time she showered and modeled lingerie. He estimates that at about 10:45 p.m., he and the accuser left his place for the party.

Taylor makes no mention of her leaving his place at anytime between her arrival “about 9 p.m.” and their departure for the party.

But The N&O reported on May 19 that the accuser’s father said she arrived at his home about 9:30 p.m., and brought her children with her. He says about 10 p.m. he and his daughter drove to neighborhood convenience store, made some purchases and returned to his house.

The father says sometime after that the accuser left his house by car but he doesn’t know whether it was in her own (Does she in fact own one? – JinC) or whether someone else drove her away.

It's impossible to reconcile Taylor and the father's accounts, isn’t it?

And The N&O doesn’t even try. Instead, it just ignores its May 19 story.

The N&O also doesn’t mention whether it asked Taylor if he had sex with the accuser the evening of the alleged rape. Defense attorneys say evidence they’ve received from DA Nifong indicates two men who drove the accuser to the party each had sex with her that night, as did her boyfriend.

You’re most likely asking, “Why didn’t The N&O ask Taylor about having sex with her? And what about this second guy who’s supposed to have also ridden with the accuser to the party?”

Good questions. You have to wonder about The N&O’s reporting, don’t you?

I’m sending a link to this post to Anne Blythe, the reporter who’s bylined for today’s N&O story and Jim Nesbitt, Joseph Neff, and Samiha Khanna, the reporters bylined for The N&O's May 19 story.

I'll let you know what, if anything, I hear back from any of them.

I’ll say more about all of this in a post tonight.