Lacrosse case leaves behind string of victims

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FORMER LACROSSE COACH MIKE PRESSLER
After its 2006 season was canceled, Duke’s lacrosse team is back on the field and ranked No. 4 in the country. But former coach Mike Pressler isn’t with them. Pressler had a good reputation around campus for handling the team, and had expressly warned them before spring break last year to behave themselves. But as details of the party and a vulgar e-mail sent by one player after the party emerged, Pressler was forced out. Two goals away from the NCAA title in 2005, he now coaches Division II Bryant College in Rhode Island.

DISTRICT ATTORNEY MIKE NIFONG
Before the case, Nifong was a respected lawyer little known outside Durham. Now, he’s on the verge of being disbarred, facing ethics charges from the North Carolina State Bar that accuse him of withholding evidence, lying to a court and making inflammatory comments about the players. Cooper sharply criticized Nifong on Wednesday, indirectly referring to him as a “rogue prosecutor.”

“Why do we have all these ruined reputations?,” said Pozner, of the defense lawyers group. “Because a man with enormous power didn’t take his time and fairly look at the facts.”

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THE MEDIA
The case had lots of hot-button issues — sex, race, class, sports, an elite university. When it broke, a swarm of reporters and television trucks rushed to Durham and made the city the dateline for a string of sweeping stories about class, race and culture. The players and accuser were viewed less as individuals than as avatars of competing political and cultural agendas.

But the case itself proved far more complicated, and few of the stories grasped that Durham was a more complicated place, too.

There were racial divisions to be sure, but also a civic tradition that kept people there talking — instead of shouting or fighting — throughout.

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