Duke lacrosse: CrimeStoppers poster questions.

(Readers note: Alex Charns, attorney for an unindicted Duke lacrosse player, has requested information from the City of Durham and its Police Department concerning publication and distribution of a Durham CrimeStoppers poster containing face-photos of 43 white Duke Men's lacrosse players.

If you're not familiar with the story, this post, "Duke lacrosse: What about the posters?", provides background as do these Durham Herald Sun and WRAL-TV news reports.)

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Folks,

Following up on yesterday’s post, "Duke lacrosse: What about the posters?"

I said in that post:

News reports and eyewitness accounts suggest the CrimeStoppers poster Charns is referring to is not the same as the “vigilante poster” The N&O published. But the matter is now in doubt.

I plan to call The N&O tomorrow and ask whether the poster it published was in fact the CrimeStoppers poster or, as I believe, a poster first published by a group that has not so far come forward and identified itself.

I haven’t gotten a call back from The N&O but I found a hard copy of its Apr. 2 West edition which contains a photo of a CrimeStoppers poster on pg. 20A.

The poster’s headline is: PLEASE COME FORWARD.

That’s followed in smaller type by:

”We’re not saying that all 46 were involved. But we do know that some of the players inside that house on that evening knew(sic) what transpired and we need them to come forward”

Durham Police Cpl.
David Addison

ABCNews
3/26/2005 (sic)

Next to all that is this:

Please call Durham CrimeStoppers at 683 -1200. Callers may remain anonymous.

The bulk of the poster is taken up with the face-photos of the 43 white lacrosse players wearing team jerseys.

At the bottom of the poster there’s this in very small type:

Note: There are four more players that were not retrieved from the GoDuke.com website before Duke took down the lacrosse team's roster on Monday morning, March 27th.

The CrimeStoppers poster does not say Duke took down the pictures out of concern for the players' safety.

Not surprisingly, The N&O also doesn't mention why Duke took down the photos.

For that matter, neither the CrimeStoppers poster nor The N&O's story mentions that the lacrosse players who rented the house where the gang-rape is alleged to have occured voluntarily gave statements to the police and offered to take lie detectors tests. (Bold added)

The N&O’s CrimeStoppers photo appears to be one of at least two posters CrimeStoppers published targeting Duke lacrosse players. From the WRAL report:

[Durham city spokeswoman Beverly B. Thompson and police spokeswoman Kammie Michael said the poster was produced by CrimeStoppers, an independent organization that offers rewards for information about crimes, and was not covered by general rules that apply to many police department activities. …

Questions were raised about the first flyer, released in early April, and it was amended within a day or so, [Thompson] said.

So, according to Thompson, there were two CrimeStoppers posters circulating in the community.

That’s not to say there weren’t other posters/flyers targeting the lacrosse players circulating at that time.

We just don't know yet.

Now let's turn to these two questions from yesterday’s post

So who authorized the CrimeStoppers poster? If it was CrimeStoppers, did it do so at the urging of DPD?

I still don’t know the answer to either question but I’ve been trying all day to find out.

Three calls to CrimeStoppers. Each time I’ve been referred on and told I needed to speak to Cpl. Addison.

I’ve left two messages at the line phone number I was given for Addison. Its voice answer begins: “This is Durham CrimeStoppers.” I identified myself as a blogger planning to publish on this story and wanting to fact check. I left a callback number.

The third time I called CrimesStoppers I was given what I was told was Addison’s cell number. Called. Got a voice answer again and left the same message as before.

I also tried to reach Durham City spokeswoman Thompson and got a friendly person who said Thompson wasn’t taking calls but I could call CrimeStoppers and they would tell me “anything you want to know.”

Hmm.

I also called Charns' office. I was told he’s in court today with a trial.

I’ve emailed him asking if he can provide more information on the poster that led to his action. I’d like to see a copy.

I’ve also sent him yesterday’s post and an earlier one I did on biased Duke lacrosse reporting by USA Today, A USA Today Duke lacrosse report: Can you miss its bias?. That post includes a link to a USA Today website where there’s a photo of a “Wanted” or “vigilante” poster being used at a gathering at Duke the night of March 29.

I’ll stay on this and keep you posted.

And if you see Cpl. Addison ask him to please give me a call. I only want to know about how he and CrimeStoppers conducted the public’s business with regard to those Duke lacrosse posters.
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URLs for this post:

http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2006/05/duke-lacrosse-what-about-posters.html

http://www.herald-sun.com/durham/4-738696.html

http://www.wral.com/news/9280281/detail.html

http://johninnorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2006/05/usa-today-duke-lacrosse-report-can-you_01.html

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/lacrosse/2006-03-29-duke-fallout_x.htm