WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26. 2006
SPORTS
NCAA LACROSSE
Duke player violates agreement
Evan Vucci/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Duke University lacrosse player Collin Finnerty leaves the D.C. Superior Courthouse on Tuesday in Washington. Finnerty appeared before a D.C. Superior Court judge for a previously scheduled status hearing of an assault case that occurred last November.
BY HEATHER GREENFIELD THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — A Duke University lacrosse player charged with raping a stripper in North Carolina was ordered Tuesday to stand trial in Washington on an unrelated assault charge from last fall.
The assault charge against Collin Finnerty, 19, could have been dismissed if he completed 25 hours of community service and stayed out of trouble, but a Washington judge decided his arrest in the rape case violated that agreement.
Finnerty and two friends are accused of punching a man after he told them to "stop calling him gay and other derogatory names," according to court documents.
Finnerty remains free pending a July 10 trial in the Washington case. He could get up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000 if convicted of simple assault.
Judge John Bayly also set a 9 p.m. curfew, ordered him to report by phone to court officials every Friday and required that he stay away from places that sell alcohol.
Finnerty nodded when the judge asked if he understood. A family priest stood a few feet behind him in the courtroom.
"This incident has been grossly mischaracterized," said attorney Steven J. McCool, who is representing Finnerty, of Garden City, N.Y., in the Georgetown case. McCool said the media have
unfairly portrayed the incident as a hate crime. He did not elaborate.
Finnerty and Duke teammate Reade Seligmann, 20, were indicted on rape and kidnapping charges last week. A 27-year-old stripper who had been hired to perform at a lacrosse team party March 13 told police three men raped her in a bathroom of the off-campus house. District Attorney Mike Nifong has said he expects to charge a third person soon.
Defense attorneys say timestamped photos, phone records and a taxi driver's testimony show Seligmann could
not have been there when the rape is alleged to have occurred.
Nifong said Tuesday he has no plans to present charges in the lacrosse case to the grand jury at his next opportunity, which comes on Monday — the day before he stands for election in the May 2 Democratic primary.
"Even 1 would think that would look political," said Nifong, who was appointed district attorney last year.
So far, Nifong said, that's happened only to David Evans, a team captain who lived at the house where the party was held. But the prosecutor is looking at other cases involving deferred prosecution.
A handful of other Duke lacrosse players facing deferred prosecution — all for misdemeanor violations in Durham — may see the charges against
them reinstated.
Evans, 22, was cited in separate incidents for a noise ordinance violation and alcohol possession. Nifong said he reinstated the charges because Evans knew there would be underage drinkers at the party.
"For a long time, we have treated deferred prosecution as a right," Nifong said. "It is a privilege."
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN 3B COLLEGE BASKETBALL
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
BY JAIME ARON
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SMU hires Doherty hopes for revival
DALLAS — SMU hired former national coach of the year Matt Doherty on Monday to try reviving a program that hasn't gone to the NCAA tournament in 13 years.
Doherty signed a five-year deal, but terms weren't disclosed. Doherty, coming off a 15-13 season at Florida Atlantic, replaces Jimmy Tubbs, who was fired April 6 after two losing seasons and an internal investigation that uncovered NCAA violations.
Doherty, who won a national championship as a player for North Carolina, broke into coaching with Notre Dame in 1999-2000. He took over the Tar Heels the next season and earned the coach of the year award from The Associated Press for going 26-7 and winning a share of the regular-season ACC title.
"I look at this as a destination job." Doherty said. "I didn't want to take a job to take another job."
North Carolina missed the NCAA field the next two years, and Doherty resigned under pressure in April 2003. He worked as a television analyst for two years, then spent this past season at Florida Atlantic.
"I didn't value experience so much when I was younger because I thought I knew it all," said the 44-year-old Doherty. "But the thing I've learned is that coaching is 50 percent the science of coaching, which is Xs and Os, and 50 percent is the art of coaching. And that's the relationships, the leadership, and that's an area I've worked very hard in improving."
Doherty's high profile should be a boost for SMU, which
"I want to put a system in place to put in a program that you all will be excited about. With the commitment we have here, why can't we be a top 25 team?" he said.
hasn't made the NCAA tournament since 1993.
New athletic director Steve Orsini said it was an easy choice for the school's 18-member search committee.
"This is definitely a great day for SMU athletics," he said. "It was a very quick and strong consensus for Matt Doherty."
Sophomore guard Derrick Roberts said he believes Doherty can revive the program.
"The first time I heard his name, I stopped listening to all the things about the other candidates," Roberts said.
Tubbs spent 12 years as an SMU assistant, then two at Oklahoma and was a popular pick when he was hired. His teams went 27-30, including 13-16 this past season, but school officials said the NCAA violations were the main reason he was fired.
James Stafford and Malcolm Farmer, assistants under Doherty at Florida Atlantic, are coming to SMU with him. Rex Walters, Doherty's top assistant, is a candidate for the Florida Atlantic head coaching job. He could join the SMU staff if he's not promoted, Doherty said.
NCAA JACROSSE
The Mustangs haven't won a postseason game — NCAA or NIT—since 1988, when they beat Notre Dame in the first round of the NCAA tournament before losing to Duke. They lost in the first round of the NIT in their only postseason appearance since 1993.
Durham Visitors Bureau tries to improve town's image after rape case
BY TIM WHITMIRE
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DURHAM, N.C. — Wherever reporters gather to cover the Duke rape case, it's a good bet Rosemarie Kitchin is nearby.
In the past two weeks, the director of media relations for the Durham Convention & Visitors Bureau showed up at a prayer service in front of Duke Chapel; on the courthouse steps as defense lawyers criticized the district attorney; and inside the courtroom where a player made his first appearance before a judge.
Celebrated two decades ago for its rundown Southern charm in the Kevin Costner baseball movie "Bull Durham," Durham has been dissected since allegations surfaced last month that members of Duke University's lacrosse team raped a stripper at a party.
Race relations, income levels.
economic development, the relationship between Duke and the city all have been examined in a search for an explanation for the scandal.
It is Kitchin's job to stick up for the Bull City in that debate.
And so she follows the reporters with an armful of bright red portfolios stuffed with promotional material about the city of 200,000. She hands out fliers or a business card, and offers reporters food from local restaurants and caterers.
"We knew we had to be on the street," said Reyn Bowman, president and chief executive of the convention and visitors bureau. "We had to be in touch with the media. ... Our job was to move quickly, and Rosemarie did that."
Durham has long been regarded in North Carolina as the bad apple of the Triangle, as the cities of Raleigh, Durham and Chapel
Hill are known. Raleigh is seen as the clean, if bland, state capital, while Chapel Hill is the bucolic university town.
But Durham is viewed as troubled and crime-ridden, a rundown factory and tobacco town with elite Duke in its midst.
After a black stripper told police she was raped by white members of the
"AT
depictions of their city, which has not gotten this much screen time since "Bull Durham" in 1988.
"When a frenzy hits like this, people are looking for contrasts, so the temptation is to slightly overemphasize the contrasts."
Reyn Bowman President and chief executive of the convention and visitors bureau
Duke lacrosse team at an off-campus party, reporters descended on Durham to cover the case and the later indictment of two players.
Bowman and Kitchin said their aim is not to put a positive spin on the story, but to provide an accurate context for national
"When a frenzy hits like this, people are looking for contrasts, so the temptation is to slightly overemphasize the contrasts," Bowman said. "Durham has a bit of an image problem within a 50-mile radius anyway. That often contami-
nates the national coverage."
Durham officials are frustrated when writers describe Durham's population as poor and black. The city is about 46 percent white and 44 percent black, while the median household income is $41,160, or just under the national average.
The "rundown factory town" image irks as well, given that the county is home to Research Triangle Park, a collection of pharmaceutical companies and other high-technology businesses that include GlaxoSmithKline and IBM.
Kitchin said she was shocked to see a TV story show an under-construction condominium development to illustrate the reporter's point that Durham "has seen better times."
"Is the glass half-empty, or is it half-full?" she said. "He's showing huge renovation projects as though they're slums."
Bowman said a national poll conducted last week for the bureau by the firm Opinion Research Corp. showed little effect on Durham's image from the Duke case.
Asked whether they had seen, read or heard any news about Durham in the past two weeks,
28 percent of those surveyed said yes, and 63 percent said no. Asked whether their image of Durham had changed, 5 percent said it had improved, 6 percent said it had worsened and 64 percent said it was the same.
Bowman and Kitchin said they will continue their longstanding effort to improve Durham's image. For years, their bureau has urged local media outlets to datele stories about Research Triangle Park from Durham, and to note Duke's location in Durham in stories about the university.
Kitchin's portfolio includes a handout on "25 Common Misperceptions about Durham and the reality behind them." Among the myths the handout mentions: "Race relations in Durham are hostile"; "Durham thinks of itself as the 'redheaded stepchild' of the Triangle"; and "Duke town/gown relationships are poor."