The Duke rape case may be over, but it lives on in lawsuits

The Duke rape case may be over in one form, but other parts of it just refuse to die. It seems that the former coach of the team, Mike Pressler, is now suing the school.

Pressler's lawsuit apparently stems from a financial settlement the school reached earlier this year with him, although school officials did not give details Friday.

The Herald-Sun of Durham reported Friday on its Web site that his lawsuit alleges the university broke the terms of the confidential settlement when university senior vice president John Burness made disparaging comments about him.

The Charlotte Observer reported that the suit said one of the comments was made April 9th in Newsday, when Burness said the difference between Pressler and current lacrosse coach John Danowski was "night and day." The second comment came in June, when Burness told The Associated Press "it was essential for the team to have a change of leadership in order to move forward."

Meanwhile, Duke's student newspaper - the Duke Chronicle - has decided not to rush to judgment.

Indeed, at this point, we know very little about this suit in particular and don't pretend to know much about the intricate legal processes at play. We need to give both the University and Pressler's attorneys time to present their arguments before reaching conclusions.

The paper was similarly lauded for not rushing to judgment during the original case.

I'm not exactly sure whether the comments the Observer reported on constitute "disparaging" or not. I'm not a lawyer. But unless Pressler was ordering his players to have insane parties, it would appear that Burness made some seriously stupid comments.

I never like to bring out personal stories, because I know you don't want to read them, but I think it's valid here. Having played football in college, our coach always said after a game, "Be safe tonight" and then half the guys on the team would wake up Sunday in another state with lampshades on their heads. That's not the coach's fault. And while I can understand that you'd need to let a coach go after a situation like what happened at Duke - provided you give him a financial settlement - you shouldn't take shots at him in the press. I seriously doubt Pressler ever told his players to celebrate wins with strippers. And now Duke might soon be paying for what was a clearly avoidable mistake.

-WCK