Tuesday, May 29, 2007

INNOCENT: Duke Loses to Brown

"... these three individuals [David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann,] are innocent of these charges."

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, Apr. 11, 2007
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The AP reports:

Reade Seligmann, one of the three former Duke lacrosse players cleared of rape charges, will attend Brown University in the fall and play lacrosse for the Bears.

"I hope to make them proud of accepting me as a student," Seligmann said Tuesday in a statement provided to The Associated Press by his attorney, Jim Cooney. "I am looking forward to just being a student again."

Seligmann's announcement came a day after the Blue Devils lost to Johns Hopkins 12-11 in the NCAA championship game in Baltimore.

"I appreciate the support and loyalty of my teammates and coaches at Duke," Seligmann said. "I will miss them. I know that they will understand why I cannot return to Duke. I have been proud to be a part of their team and I am grateful for the support they have given to me over the past year."
I’m sure everyone reading this wishes Reade Seligmann well at Brown.

For thirteen months Seligmann had to battle through an extraordinarily trying and unjust ordeal.

People he expected would treat him fairly, educate him, and aide him in time of need did terrible things to create the ordeal. Some of those people sought to frame him for felony crimes he obviously never committed while others enabled the framers by their silence or outright support.

Seligmann fought through the ordeal with grace under pressure, remarkable character, fortitude and the wisdom to draw strength and guidance from a loving family and skilled counsels. And he stayed close to dear friends.

He’s earned every blessing life can bring. It's a safe bet Brown will always be proud to claim Seligmann. He'll bring honor to Brown.

As for Duke, who doesn’t understand why Seligmann feels he “cannot return” there?

I’ll soon say more about that.

For now I’ll just say this: It should be very troubling to people who care about Duke that the University has lost a student like Seligmann while keeping a president like Dick Broadhead and faculty like the Group of 88.

The AP went on to report:
[Collin] Finnerty remains undecided on where he will attend school.

"I'll be going in the fall somewhere," he told the AP during Monday's championship game. "Hopefully we can decide that soon and get things going back the way they should be."

Former Duke coach Mike Pressler recently completed his first season as head coach at Division II Bryant University in Smithfield, about 10 miles from Providence.

Pressler was forced to resign from Duke last year and is releasing a book on the case next month.

He declined to comment through his agent Tuesday.
The entire AP story is here.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

JFK Jr was able to preserve his annonyminity and live a normal student life. I know that Reade will do the same. Best of luck to this fine young man.

Anonymous said...

Your comment- "For now I’ll just say this: It should be very troubling to people who care about Duke that the University has lost a student like Seligmann while keeping a president like Dick Broadhead and faculty like the Group of 88."

Boy, is that right on target. What a mess. Are we at Duke really going to keep Brodhead?