DURHAM, N.C. – The Rev. Jesse Jackson said Saturday his Rainbow/PUSH Coalition would pay the college tuition of a black woman who alleges white members of the Duke University lacrosse team raped her.
The 27-year-old woman, a student at North Carolina Central University, told police she and another woman were hired to strip dance at a team party. The woman told police that three men at the party dragged her into a bathroom and raped her March 13.
No one has been charged in the case, but the allegations have rocked the community. Jackson he has yet to speak with the woman, but said his group pledged to pay for her tuition even if her story proves false.
The woman should be able to support her two children and pay her tuition without having "to sacrifice her body to make money."
The prosecutor has said he believes a crime was committed at the party, citing a medical exam that found the woman's injuries and behavior were consistent with being raped.
Attorneys for the players have said DNA tests failed to connect any players to the attack, and they have urged the prosecutor to drop his investigation. But several defense attorneys say they expect the district attorney to ask a grand jury Monday to indict one or more of the players.
But in a phone interview with The Associated Press, Jackson said he believed there was enough circumstantial evidence indicating something happened to the woman.
"There's more evidence that violence occurred to her than she's the lead of a hoax," Jackson said.
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