My name is Larry Lamade. My son Peter is a senior midfielder on the Duke men’s lacrosse team.

On Thursday December 21, 2006, I made the following remarks to the New York City Duke Lacrosse Alumni and Friends. So much has happened since that time that I was not sure that I could make the same remarks to you tonight. They seemed a bit dated even though such a short period of time had passed, but so many things had happened.

-Nifong dismissed the rape charge but kept in place the allegations of sexual assault and kidnapping.

- The North Carolina bar association filed ethics charges against Nifong stating that he engaged in “dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation”

-The North Carolina conference of District Attorneys issued a public letter demanding that Nifong recuse himself from the case

- Editorials demanding Nifong’s resignation as district attorney or his recusal from the case appeared in numerous publications including:

The Charlotte Observer, Greensboro News-Record, the News and Observer, Wilmington Star, Washington Post, Washington Times, L.A. Times, Newark Star-Ledger, San Diego Union-Tribune, New York Daily News, and Rocky Mountain News and most importantly,

- Duke University extended offers to reade and collin to return to the university.

Damn, I thought if one speech could generate all those positive steps, I ought to give it again.No, seriously, i am giving the speech again because it accurately describes the reasons why the Association for Truth and Fairness was created in the first place. It also unequivocally confirms the belief by the boys and their parents of the boys’ innocence from day one and the reluctance of others to share this belief in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

Dorothy Rabinowitz in today’s Wall Street Journal said, “no one could have imagined, when the story began last march, how soon and completely that bit of shorthand – “the Duke University scandal” – would be transformed. We did.

These were my remarks:

I have never been more confident in telling you that the allegations made against Collin Finnerty, Reade Seligman, and David Evans are totally false.When did I know this? I knew it when my son called me on March 21, 2006. He said that he needed to talk to me about a police investigation of a Duke lacrosse team party.Before I could say anything in reply, he said, “don’t worry dad, nothing happened.” I’m sure that this same unqualified statement was repeated 46 other times by members of the Duke lacrosse team to their parents.You were undergraduates once, probably attended similar parties. You wouldn’t have lied to your parents about allegations that serious.

After the incident became public, a flurry of activity took place as various interested parties weighed in with their thoughts and opinions condemning the members of the Duke lacrosse team. What then was known as the Duke rape is now rapidly becoming known as the Durham district attorney scandal.

The boys on the team, knowing the allegations were false, were not afraid to cooperate with authorities.The 3 boys who leased the house gave statements to the police. The rest volunteered to give statements as soon as they had a chance to inform their parents of the situation. Shockingly, they didn’t have that opportunity. A subpoena was received compelling the boys to produce non-testimonial evidence – oral swabs to get their DNA. Nonetheless, having no fear, they once again willingly complied with the subpoena. No one flinched because they knew that there would be no match between their DNA and the accuser’s. The District Attorney, Mike Nifong had weighed in with a similar assertion. He said that the DNA would exonerate the innocent.Little did he know that the DNA would prove that they were all innocent.

Even though the DNA results were dispositive as to the boys’ innocence, the District Attorney changed his tune after the results were returned. Nifong asserted that condoms must have been used. He made that assertion, even though unbeknownst to the public, the accuser had previously told him that condoms had not been used.

Nifong was facing an upcoming primary election.If he had lost, he probably would have been terminated from the office that had employed him for the past 27 years. Eighteen months earlier, when Nifong’s predecessor had been granted a judgeship, the governor had appointed him as Interim District Attorney for Durham County. Nifong’s first act as DA was to fire the senior trial Assistant District Attorney. This former ADA was now his main competition in the primary, and she was ahead in the polls.

Last Easter weekend was one of the worse moments in my life as it was for 46 other families.Nifong had indicated that he was going to indict at least 3 lacrosse players the week after Easter.All the lacrosse families knew the allegations were false, but all had to retain attorneys. We felt like the men of the USS Indianapolis in WWII after their ship was sunk. They bobbed hopelessly in the waters of the pacific for days while the sharks indiscriminately picked them off.Innocence did not mean that the boys were not vulnerable.We had to protect our sons.

It was a Kafkaesque moment. The allegations were false, but Nifong said that he was going to indict 3.Your son could be indiscriminately indicted.Multiple choice – no wrong answers. Were you praying that your son not be indicted? Of course.Would there be any relief if he were not indicted? No.Collin, Reade, and David could just have easily been Peter, Ned, and Matt. We were all in this together.The truth had been trampled; the rank unfairness of the situation obvious.

How could I help? Being an attorney, I knew that the legal bills for Collin, Reade, and David would be sizeable especially if it went to trial.I also realized that all of the other families – most of whom could little afford it – had incurred legal fees as well. Should I create a defense fund? That was obvious, but I thought that it should be more. We wanted to create an enduring testament to these boys who had been treated so unfairly. Our idea was to create an entity that would raise money to help these boys defend themselves but in the future, we also wanted to help others who were subjected to similar injustices. Idealistically, I also thought that this entity might try to prevent such egregious misuse of power from ever occurring. What has happened to these boys should never happen to anyone again.

We called the entity the Association for Truth and Fairness. ATAF for short. Truth and fairness are simple principles but hard to live by for some.Both of these principles are embodied in the simple phrase, “do the right thing.” These boys have been abused because those with power and influence have not done the right thing. Failing to do so in the future will inflict further harm as long as this fiasco continues. As truth and fairness are simple principles so is “doing the right thing” a simple concept, but so difficult for the unscrupulous to abide by especially when they have ulterior motives. Doing the right thing is more easily explained by describing what it does not mean:

It does not mean:

-damaging others for personal gain

-opting for the expedient rather than the ethically correct course of action

-prejudging individuals

-protecting an image in detriment to individual rights

-being disingenuous

- failing to admit when you are wrong

To date we have quietly raised$750,000. We have used this money to defray some of the expenses of the indicted boys.We estimate that the total legal fees will be in the 4.5 to 5.0 million dollar range. Our task is formidable.We would also like to reimburse the legal fees of the 9/11 firemen, the single mothers and other parents of Duke lacrosse players whose sons could not attend Duke if it weren’t for scholarship help. All of these lacrosse parents have dug deep to pay defense costs.

These boys have been scarred in ways that money can never compensate.However, when it comes to legal fees, we can help in some small way.It is the boys on this lacrosse team who have been violated. No one else.Please do the right thing and make a contribution to our association.

Thank you for listening to me.For those who are interested, I have written information on how to make your contribution.

Those were my remarks.Let me add one post script. We now have a web site where you can make a contribution by check or credit card.I was skeptical when I asked our website consultant if we could get the site name, “truthandfairness.org.” It is a sad commentary, but good for us that the site was instantly available. It just underscores the lack of such virtues in the world today.