Durham Herald-Sun: 2 Duke Lacrosse Players Charged With Rape and Kidnapping

That's right: that's the case of the Duke lacrosse team having the bad sense to hire two ecdysiasts, one of whom accused members of the team of rape. Now two Duke lax players are formally charged--though with what, we won't know yet, because the indictments are sealed.

When I first commented on this case, no one but Rush Limbaugh had asked whether the complainant was lying. But now a number of witnesses are saying that her attitude and behavior at the time were simply not consistent with that of a rape victim. ABC News has a security guard on tape saying precisely that.

Well, now, you see what you get when you descend into sexual sin to this extent? Haled into court by a politically motivated prosecutor, that's where. And this is hardly the first time that members of the Duke lax team have been caught acting like jerks--in some cases, violating the alcohol policy. As I said before, several things about their behavior, on the night in question and before, give one serious pause. Theirs is a tale of bad judgment and a worse attitude--an attitude of contempt for authority, policy, and the law. And that, apparently, is why the coach was suspended from his duties--because the university had warned him repeatedly to discipline his boys and he wouldn't do it. If he had, they might not have hired the ecdysiasts--and if they hadn't done that, two of their teammates might not now be formally charged with rape.

But bad behavior, or even a history of same, doesn't add up to the crime of rape. Neither does the evidence that I have so far seen show that.

The trial of those boys is likely to be a raucous a circus as has any case in the annals of American jurisprudence. A politically motivated prosecutor flying in the face of the evidence--this is classic made-for-TV crime-drama material.