Members of the Duke 38 Suit - a parody

Readers Note: Most of you know about the suit announced Feb. 21 by lead attorney Charles Cooper acting on behalf of 38 members of Duke's 2006 Men's lacrosse team and some of their family members.

Those of you familiar with Raleigh N&O news columnist Ruth Sheehan's Mar. 27, 2006 McCarthyite screed, "Team's silence is sickening," will recognize immediately that the following parody drew its “inspiration” from Sheehan’s column.


John
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Members of the Duke 38 Suit: You know

We know you know.

Whatever happened in your meeting at attorney Charles Cooper’s law office gone terribly bad, you know what evidence was discussed. Every one of you does.

And one of you needs to come forward and tell attorneys for President Brodhead and Sgt. Gottlieb.

Do not be afraid of retribution on the team. Do not be persuaded that somehow the decision to file the suit was something that just "happened" to one or more "good guys."

If what Durham City and Duke University say is true – that DPD is covered by immunity and that Duke was willing to pay big bucks to buy your silence -- the guys responsible for this suit are not "good."

This seems an elementary statement, I know.

But I can see loyal team members sitting around Cooper’s conference table convincing themselves that it would be disloyal to turn on their teammates -- why, the guys were targeted by hate-filled people waving a CASTRATE banner.

They called their mothers when a member of Duke VP Tallman Trask’s staff produced the Vigilante poster.

They even remembered May 18, 2006 at the Durham County Courthouse when New Black Panther Party racists shouted death threats at their teammate, Reade Seligmann.

They’re convinced those things shouldn’t happen in America.

And the defendants? They were... just DPD sworn officers, Durham officials and Duke officials and staffers, for Pete's sake.

I can see the plaintiffs going down this path, justifying their suit.

And it makes me sick.

Because, of all the occupational hazards that must come with being a rogue cop or a member of “Dick senior team,” one of them should not be accountability.

And no, being subpoenaed to testify under oath doesn't make it any better.

Unfortunately, because the team members are students at a university, there is a tendency to presume the suit is a reasonable act. That these players are "good guys."

No, those who brought this suit are not "good guys."

I don't know what happened in that law office, and at that conference table, up in Washington. Ultimately, that will be a matter for the court system to decide.

But what was said at the meeting is something the defendants’ attorneys need to know. Now.

They shouldn't have to wait for discovery to find out what their clients really did during the frame-up attempt and as part of the ongoing cover-up.

Every one of the plaintiffs knows a lot of information.

Until they come forward with that information, forfeiting games isn't enough.

Shut down the court system.