Eleven months after rape allegations thrust the Duke men's lacrosse team into the national spotlight, several of the team's supporters have undertaken major fundraising efforts to help members of the 2005-2006 team finance their legal expenses.
The Association for Truth and Fairness, a Delaware-based nonprofit organization, has raised $750,000 toward this cause, said Sherman "Tiger" Joyce, a founding member of ATAF.
Joyce estimated that legal bills for the three players accused of kidnapping and sexual assault have already reached a total of $3 million. ATAF organizers intend to raise $5 million, using excess funds to advocate against abuses in the criminal justice system, he added.
"Our goal is to prevent something like this from happening again," he said.
Rae Evans, mother of indicted player David Evans, Trinity '06, told The Chronicle that she has appreciated ATAF's outreach to her family and all the Duke lacrosse families.
The Evans family has also received widespread support, ranging from cookies left on their doorstep to hundreds of letters sent from both friends and strangers.
"It lets us know that other people believe in these young men's innocence and that the 'fantastic lies' have caused a great injustice," she said. "Innocence is a great foundation on which to build a base of support."
ATAF has received donations from hundreds of people, Joyce said.
"We continue to get donations through the website, and we're getting contributions from all over the country," he said. "It's very rewarding to think that our message is getting out. The case clearly resonates with the public."
ATAF's funds go toward financing the team of defense attorneys, who have spent hundreds of hours working on the case and have hired private investigators, pollsters and experts on DNA and forensics, Joyce said.
He added that ATAF's board of directors reviews payment requests from the parents of the indicted players-Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann. The association subsequently decides what funding can be made available for the families.
If financially possible, the board members also intend to address the legal expenses that many of the unindicted lacrosse players incurred before Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong charged anyone last spring, Joyce said.
Nifong recused himself from the case Jan. 12, and the case was turned over to two special prosecutors in the state Attorney General's office.
William Wolcott, Trinity '06 and a member of the 2005-2006 men's lacrosse team, said he and many of his fellow seniors from last year's team have worked together to raise money for ATAF.
"The idea is not only to support Collin, Reade and Dave and defray their legal costs-it is to ensure that this never happens to anyone ever again, regardless of race or socio-economic status," Wolcott said.
He added that he and his former teammates met this weekend to send 30 to 40 letters each, asking close friends and family to support ATAF's cause by offering donations.
"As you can imagine, these three families have been taxed to their emotional and financial limits," the players wrote in the letter. "Your support will convey to these families that you stand by them in their fight for truth and justice."
The former teammates are also sending 50 wristbands with the slogan, "Duke Lacrosse 2006 INNOCENT! #6 #13 #45" to more than 30 top collegiate lacrosse programs to promote a sense of camaraderie among members of the lacrosse community.
The jersey numbers identified on the wristband were worn by Evans, Finnerty and Seligmann, respectively.
"We want to spread the word further and also encourage those guys to talk to their parents and alumni and encourage them to support the association," Wolcott said.
Since March 2006, the team members have remained a tight-knit group and have attempted to rally around the families of the indicted players to express both their emotional and financial support for them, he said.
"We really stuck together, held onto the truth and loved each other," he said. "It's a testament to our friendship and our loyalty to one another that we are still friends after living through such an emotional, tragic and difficult experience together."
Jason Trumpbour, Trinity '89 and Law '91, helped establish the Friends of Duke University blog in response to the lacrosse case.
FODU has a medley of members with Duke connections, from alumni, to parents of current undergraduates, to a sole faculty member, said Trumpbour, the blog's spokesperson.
The site is intended to serve as a hub for supporters of the accused to communicate and organize projects, such as a letter-writing campaign to members of the so-called "Group of 88"-the faculty who published an advertisement in The Chronicle emphasizing issues of sexism and racism in light of the lacrosse case-asking them to join FODU.
FODU posted a link to ATAF's website to promote the organization's mission, Trumpbour said. His website also endorses other groups with analogous objectives, such as one selling Duke lacrosse wristbands to raise money for ATAF.
"They're trying to get the word out and we're going to do what we can to raise attention to the Association for Truth and Fairness and help them raise money," he said. "We know each other, we work together and it's kind of remarkable the degree of single-mindedness among the different groups."
Though many of the lacrosse supporters are Duke alumni, like Wolcott and Trumpbour, many others are not.
Joyce, president of the American Tort Reform Association, is an Evans family friend, but said he has no affiliation with Duke. He sits on the Board of Trustees at the Landon School in Bethesda, Md., a popular feeder school for the Duke lacrosse program and Evans' alma mater.
In establishing ATAF, Joyce collaborated with two former lacrosse players-Carter Hertzberg, Trinity '93, who played lacrosse at Duke, and Russell Hewit, who played lacrosse at Washington and Lee University.
Joyce said that of the three indicted players, he knows only Evans outside of the case.
"He lives close to where I live," Joyce said. "I offer him words of encouragement and tell him that we're thinking about them."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.