Oh, Irony

It seems that just about everyone is suing Duke these days. On the 21st of last month, 38 of the 47 players from the men’s lacrosse team of 2005-2006 sued the University and 28 other defendants, noting 31 counts of grievances relating to the false rape charges made in 2006.

Nine parents and 20 current Duke students are involved, leaving only three former players out of the litigation—graduate student graduate student Matt Danowski, Trinity ‘07, senior Kevin Mayer and Matt Zash, Trinity ‘06.

In a period of three months, this is the third lawsuit to be filed against Duke and also the third lawsuit filed by team members in the past year.

But there is a slight caveat this time—a Duke motion has declared a breach in ethics, saying that attorneys for the 38 plaintiffs violated state and federal ethics rules in publicizing their suit against the University.

The rule in question prohibits lawyers from making statements outside the courtroom that could attract outside publicity and possibly sway public opinion.

The filing reads, “When a complaint contains such incendiary language, an attorney should not be permitted to hide behind the language of the complaint and make a statement to the press that strings together paragraphs that are highly prejudiced.”

This same ethics rule was a factor last summer in former District Attorney Mike Nifong’s disbarment hearings and although Professor of Law Thomas Metzloff told The Chronicle this case is nothing like Nifong’s, it is certainly an interesting twist.

The University seems to have a problem with unwanted publicity that could potentially sway public opinion regarding the case or cause permanent reputation damage. This sounds familiar. Is it ironic that Duke is up in arms about damaging publicity, when this is the very reason former and current lacrosse players are suing the University in the first place? Is it ridiculous that the University is protesting the use of media in these proceedings when slanderous media attention was so devastating to the innocent players just one year ago?

In any case, it seems that the 38 plaintiffs have learned something from their experience—and that is that the media holds great power, and now it may be their turn to use it in their own favor.

-Gabby McGlynn, City and State Editor