A Few Months Late and A Lot of Dollars Short
I often wonder why people insist that Hillary Clinton apologize for voting to authorize the Iraq War. It wouldn’t change the record, but it seems apologies are a big deal to someone, even if they say it for political expediency.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m a true believer in apologies, but I feel they should come at the right time and not months or years later.
That’s why I was a bit disgusted to read today that the president of Duke University finally apologized to the lacrosse players he let hang out to dry for over a year.
DURHAM, N.C. — Duke University President Richard Brodhead apologized Saturday for not better supporting the men’s lacrosse players falsely accused in last year’s highly publicized rape scandal.
Brodhead, speaking at the university’s law school, said he regretted Duke’s “failure to reach out” in a “time of extraordinary peril” after a woman accused three players of raping at a March 2006 party thrown by the team.
“Given the complexities of this case, getting the communication right would never have been easy,” Brodhead said. “But the fact is that we did not get it right, causing the families to feel abandoned when they were most in need of support. This was a mistake. I take responsibility for it and I apologize for it.”…
…In the early days of the case, Brodhead was generally cautious in his comments, saying the players should be presumed innocent while also insisting the crimes alleged had no place at the elite private university.
Brodhead said Saturday he worried that making numerous public comments could be interpreted as an attempt by Duke to “influence the judicial process,” especially since Nifong was insisting a crime had occurred.
That may have created an impression that Duke did not care about the accused students, Brodhead said, which he said was untrue but still something he regrets.
“Duke needed to be clear that it demanded fair treatment for its students,” he said. “I took that completely for granted. If anyone doubted it, then I should have been more explicit, especially as the evidence mounted that the prosecutor was not acting in accordance with the standards of his profession.”
Brodhead also said the school could have done more to show that some members of Duke’s faculty who were openly critical of the lacrosse team did not speak for the university as a whole.
The article does say a settlement has been made with the former coach and the players. Maybe this apology was part of that settlement.
I certainly hope it was enough to cover the legal expenses of these young men who could be rotting in prison cells now if not for good attorneys.
Which begs the question: what happens to those who cannot afford high-priced lawyers with the sources these lawyers had at their fingertips?
Written by ~J~
rkb Says:
September 30th, 2007 at 1:50 pmVisit rkb
They are facing the threat of new lawsuits from the unindicted players.
~J~ Says:
September 30th, 2007 at 2:27 pmVisit ~J~
I hope the unindicted players win the lawsuits if that’s true. Their reputations also suffered and they were forced to quit the season in which they could have won the title.