WHEN SOMETHING EQUALS NOTHING

"Well, something must have happened in that house."

This is a common line that anyone familiar with the Duke Rape Case, Saga, Hoax or whatever you wish to call it, has become accustomed to. It is the new mantra of those who are still trying to believe that the accuser is telling the truth. It has become the mantra of the hopeless and the twisted...those who are desperate for the accuser to indeed have been raped, so they don’t have to try and forgive themselves for being so wrong, and those who have already retreated to a fallback position of indignance and defiance, to justify their fading faith.

That justification is now taking shape as those accuser supporters prepare themselves for the inevitable conclusion that they are slowly reaching...there was no rape, and if that is the case, then what else are they to hang their outraged hat on?

You guessed it..."Well something must have happened in that house."

Not to pick on Cash Michaels, but because he writes better than many who espouse this view, here is an excerpt from a post he left at the wtvd boards:

"Many still believe that something very wrong happened to the AV at that party, and in that house. She walked in to get her shoe, makeup bag, cell phone and money, and she was CARRIED OUT without any of it. There are over 20 witnesses who have the pieces of that puzzle, and they haven’t said a word to police since that night. The three captains who lived there aren’t enough. We should have heard from everybody there. To me there’s no difference between the LAX players attorney-directed stonewalling of the police, and the “no snitching” fad the hip-hop community has made horribly fashionable that has crippled various police investigations into murders and gang activity."

This is absurd.

"Many still believe that something very wrong happened to the AV at that party and in that house."

This new line, written in one way or another with a variation of words here or there, has seeped out of the accuser supporters wherever they can be found with the reliability of sap running out of Vermont maple trees. Much like sap, this new mantra is sticky, messy, and just plain, well, sappy.The ever vigilant and unreasonable accuser crowd can believe whatever they want, but there is no evidence whatsoever that a rape or "something very wrong" happened to her in that house. As such, they have no clue just what they think happened.... but something happened in that house...even if they have no clue what it was.

"She walked in to get her shoe, makeup bag, cell phone and money and she was CARRIED out without any of it"

This is totally wrong and Cash is too intelligent a man not to know it. She was standing on the back porch smiling. She HAD her bag and cell phone with her, and she clearly never got back in to the house to get her shoe!

She lost her bag/phone/money when she fell down the stairs and laid there passed out for several minutes or so. She was not CARRIED out of the house, she was helped to Kim Roberts' car from where she had been passed out in the back on the ground. This is confirmed from Kim Roberts' statement, which says,

“I told them that if they could get her to my car, I would get her out of their hair. Within minutes, she was being helped OUT OF THE BACK YARD and into my car.”

Kim Roberts then asked her if she had her bag and more importantly her money and the accuser kept saying "it's here, it's here" motioning to nothing in particular, and Kim, seeing that the accuser was completely out of it and was without any of her things, locked her in the car and went to look for her stuff, apparently missing it where it lay in the back yard.

Why would the lacrosse players steal all of the accuser's belongings? They don't need her stuff and took it inside when they found it and then later gave it directly to the police when asked during the search. Cash never once alludes to the accuser’s mental condition (diagnosed as bipolar disorder), or the substances she had ingested that night (by her own admission): a strong prescription drug (Flexeril), two 24-ounce beers, and one rum and coke, despite warnings by the drug manufacturer of very serious possible side effects/interactions if flexeril was mixed with alcohol. This is not bashing or slandering this young woman; it is the truth concerning her mental state that night, and the truth should not be ignored.

"There are over 20 witnesses who have the pieces of that puzzle, and they haven’t said a word to police since that night. The three captains who lived there aren’t enough. We should have heard from everybody there. "

The accused have said plenty. They said nothing happened. They said she was not capable of performing and that she was uncoordinated and erratic (confirmed by Kim Roberts). They said the dancers went into the bathroom and locked the door while they slipped money under the door. Since the boys weren't in the bathroom for those 10-20 minutes or so, what else could they know? What else COULD they say?

The players said the dancers left and the accuser came back and was banging on the back door, then she passed out while descending the stairs. They said she was lying in the back yard for a few minutes before they helped her to the car.

That is their impression of what happened...if that is the truth, then what more do the accuser's supporters expect the players to say? If all accounts are similar and consistent with events they witnessed, what do her supporters want, for the players to make up something that will allow her supporters to say "Ah Hah!"?

"To me there’s no difference between the LAX players attorney-directed stonewalling of the police, and the “no snitching” fad the hip-hop community has made horribly fashionable that has crippled various police investigations into murders and gang activity."

Stonewalling? They are supposed to cooperate with the District Attorney and the Durham Police Department, who seem determined to frame them? This is like Nifong saying innocent people don’t need lawyers. It ignores the most basic of our civil rights as Americans. No snitching? If there is nothing to snitch about, there can be no snitching.

He just doesn't like the fact that they have all to a man confirmed what they say is the truth, backed up by Kim Roberts initial statement, before any pressure was brought to bear on her. It is the truth and there are no facts to dispute that it is indeed the real story of what happened that night.

I don't think that the lacrosse team is in anyway comparable to say, the bloods and the crips, who kill people, terrorize their communities, pull drive-bys, deal drugs to kids and turn the streets into a war zone where decent people fear for their lives and those of their families.

If one were to go to the Watts section of Los Angeles, and interview people in the Jordan Downs and Imperial Courts housing projects, they might find that residents would probably feel they'd have a much more peaceful existence with the Duke Lacrosse team as neighbors as opposed to the Grape Street Crips and Bountyhunter Bloods whose feud in that area has killed scores over the years.

There certainly are players on the lacrosse team who have been cited for urinating in public, and underage drinking, as well as one fight, however, none have lengthy violent criminal records and none have served terms in prison. I do not know of any crips or bloods who are ACC honor roll students. The players are not perfect and they are not angels...they also are not "satan's sons" as they were referred to on the "ourheartsworld" website.

They know, along with Kim Roberts, exactly what happened at 610 North Buchanan Boulevard. Something indeed happened in that house that night . . .and that something is nothing.