I recently just finished reading two books on the Duke Lacrosse Rape case and while both of the books were pretty good, Its Not About the Truth, The Untold Story of the Duke Lacrosse Case and the Lives It Shattered by Don Yaeger and Coach Mike Pressler.  ISBN 1-4165-5146, 321 pages and (C) 2007.
  This is definately one of the best books ever written on crime, and if we had not watched this story unfold on tv, cable, MSM and in the blogs a person would easily swear that this is a good piece of fiction.  The story had everything the media and society wanted-Sex, strippers, corrupt government officials and athletes.  
  Don's abilty to get to the heart of the matter, and his investigative skills showed that from the beginning David, Colin and Reade (as well as the Duke Lax team) were being railroaded with minimal support from President Broadhead and his lack of leadership.  Of course there were 88 faculty members ("Group of 88") who jumped in with their personal agendas, and the usual suspects that come out, play the race card-and pronounced these athletes guilty before the investigation was even finished. Don has attempted to interview all the major players in this story and was rebuffed in a few instances by Broadhead, Mike Nifong and Crystal Gail Magnuson to get all sides of the story to tell the readers what was happening and what the MSM weren't talking about to America. Also Don is able to clarify in several parts of his investigation the fallacies put out by Nifong regarding the cooperation of the Duke Lax team, and even showed the possible double standard in reporting a rape case when the alleged victim is white, the alleged perputrator is black and a member of a black fraternity.
  It would be nice to hope that this change is due in not rushing to judgement and waiting for the respective police department and government agencies to do their investigation and not because it doesn't fit a sociology or African-America studies professors agenda of race/class or sex.
  Coach Mike Pressler during the early days of this scandal kept a diary and he wrote out his raw emotions that he was going through and it showed a diffrent kind of perspective from what was put out in the MSM.  Where his diary entries are quoted, showed a man who was committed to his team, bulwark in the face of a storm that wasn't ceasing and yet was fully human in private.  A man concerned for the safety of his family, and who put his needs last.  If there was ever a good example on leadership in the face of chaos-Coach Pressler demonstrated in measure that very few mortals would ever be able to understand or do consistently.
  The book is a little brash on the language and the profanities that are there are used in quotations from various people.  Understand that for the Duke Lax team, their families, and the few supporters they had, these are raw emotions and they cannot be treated with some nice sugar coating. (want sugar-Drink a coke and eat a bag of skittles)  From the beginning these folks believed in a justice system that would protect the innocent, punish the guilty, and they learned it showed that "truth" is just a matter of perspective and the facts would do little to keep a various groups from pushing their agenda or DA from getting elected. 
   There are alot of good reasons to enjoy this book, and in the end I became extremely and rightesouly angry.  For any person that has been falsely accused of a crime that they didn't commit will see part of themselves in this book and don't be suprised if the emotions that you had when you went through it come back up again.  Its not offen that I recommend a book to read, but this one should be on your summer reading list.  If you are a guy, a father of teenage sons, law school student or athlete-Read this book and consider that David, Colin or Reade could have been anyone of us in society accused because a person points a finger. 
  As a former EMT-B, Navy Corpsman and someone who has worked with various rape victims,  survived one SCM and faced another that was dismissed prior to SCM due to an HM2 being caught fabricating evidence-the Duke Lax hit very close to home.  
  I can say with relative certainly that the patients of rape that I worked with  had legitimate cases and don't recall any of them where their complaints were found to be invalid or false.  However, for victims rights advocates, their job has become alot more complicated because of the false accusations by Magnuson and any future victim of rape will think twice about coming forward, while the accused will have a case that made national headlines from which their attorneys can cite. 
  For the accused that have been charged, and facing several years in jail or the brig, it can be very unerving time.  Seeing that everything you worked for can be taken away in the briefest momement and the only you have left is your reputation.  It is during these times a person's faith is truly tested and it shows whether its a genuine faith in God or something like a "goodluck" charm. I and several of my colleges were fortunate over the years-we survived the malicious charges and I was able to retire last summer.
  If there was any critisim to be found with the book, its this and its not in anyway to meant to satisfy some pathetic or sadistic need, but to show the depth of depravity that those people that sought to destroy Duke Lax, and the reputations of the accused would be to include  showing who the accuser is (she has been able to hide annouymously)-(checkout foxnews.com for her photo), and the "potbangers".  Additionally publishing the names of "Group of 88" so society could see what truly evil is, vindictive prose these professors wrote before the truth came out and consider that they are teaching young adults.  The final thing I would like to have seen added was an index so a person can see how various events and people are interconnected over the period of thirteen months.
  In closing I will leave with a few random thoughts; Read the book, check out the sources for yourself, and come to your own conclusions about the case.  Don Yaeger, and Coach Mike Pressler have written a truly wonderful book and its definately worth reading twice and discussing with your athletes or teenage sons.  It is my sincerest hope that for everyone involved will either get the punishment due them, or have their reputations given back sevenfold......