Sealed Warrants In Case Of Alleged Duke University Fraternity Rape Opened, Reveal New Details
On the evening of January 8, alleges a Duke University student, she attended a party at one of Duke’s off-campus houses belonging to the Duke chapter of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity where she was drugged and raped.
The female Duke University student claims that earlier in the night, she had had one mixed drink, and then was asked to go upstairs into a bedroom with a member of the Duke chapter of the Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity, but she refused. Later on, she was given “hot chocolate”, that didn’t taste like it had any alcohol in it, so she drank it. The original police reports stated that the last thing she remembered was dancing with friends, but at some point in the night she lost consciousness. New reports from the unsealed warrants state that she had started to remember snippets of the night, including a vague recollection of being led to the house next door, people sitting in the living room, and going into a bedroom with a Drake poster on the wall. She also told police that she remembered saying “let’s go back to the party,” but has no memory of anything that happened after that.
She awoke the next morning — still in the off-campus house that is rented to Duke students in the Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity — wearing a t-shirt that didn’t belong to her. She also wasn’t wearing her bra or underwear, and her leggings were torn on the floor beside her.
According to a hospital official who called 911 after the Duke University student visited the hospital, she had scratches and bruises all over her body.
“She woke up around noon today, we don’t know when the assault happened because… there were presumably drugs — date rape drugs, or whatever you call it — involved. She has no idea. [She had] bruises and scratches on her legs, arms and back, and a bruise on her forehead.”
When the Special Victims Unit of the Durham Police Department initially searched the house in January, they swabbed the house and took with them a mattress, comforter, cups, a condom, liquid samples, and pictures and videos from inside the Duke Fraternity house. The sealed search warrants, which were released on Monday, revealed that police had also searched a second home relating to the fraternity, as well as a tree house. Both houses are leased to University students in the fraternity, but they are both owned by the same person. Other clues seized in the homes and tree house, according to the warrants, included beer cans, cigarette butts, a sweater, four buttons, a pearl earring, two bean bag chair covers, two plastic cups, and a section of carpet from the tree house.
Police are focusing on one Duke University student in particular, the warrants say, who is a member of the fraternity. The fraternity is suspended pending the investigation.
[Photo Credit: Sara D. Davis/Getty Images, Image Credit: WNCN]
