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It's Not About the Truth: The Untold Story of the Duke Lacrosse Rape Case and the Lives It Shattered | 
 enlarge | Authors: Don Yaeger, Mike Pressler
Publisher: Threshold Editions
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
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You Save: $24.06 (96%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  36 reviews
Sales Rank: 298429
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 336
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.3
ISBN: 1416551468
Dewey Decimal Number: 364.153209756563
EAN: 9781416551461
ASIN: 1416551468
Publication Date: June 12, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: hardcover book and dust jacket in excellent condition-fast ship
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Product Description
Mike Pressler walked into the bottomfloor meeting room of the Murray Building and, as he had done hundreds of times over a sixteen-year career at Duke University, prepared to address his men's lacrosse team. Forty-six players sat in theater-style chairs, all eyes riveted forward.It was 4:35 P.M. on Wednesday, April 5, 2006. The program's darkest hour had arrived in an unexpected and explosive announcement. Pressler, a three-time ACC Coach of the Year, informed his team that its season was canceled and he had "resigned," effective immediately. While his words reverberated off the walls, hysteria erupted. Players cried, confused over a course of events that had spun wildly out of control. What began as an off-campus team party with two hired strippers had accelerated into a rape investigation -- one that exposed prosecutorial misconduct, shoddy police work, an administration's rush to judgment, and the media's disregard for the facts -- dividing both a prestigious university and the city of Durham. Wiping away tears, Pressler demonstrated the steely resolve that helped him win more than two hundred games. For the next thirty minutes, Pressler put his personal situation aside and encouraged his players to stick together. He also made a bold promise: "One day, we will get a chance to tell the world the truth. One day." This is that day. Pressler, who has not done an interview since the saga began, has handed his private diary from those three weeks to New York Times bestselling author Don Yaeger, exposing vivid details, including the day Pressler was fired, when the coach asked Athletic Director Joe Alleva why the school "wasn't willing to wait for the truth" to come out. "It's not about the truth anymore," Alleva said to the coach in a signature moment that said it all. In addition to Pressler, Yaeger interviewed more than seventy-five key figures intimately involved in the case. The result is a tale that defies logic. "It is tough to be one of fifty people who believed a story when fifty million people believed something else," Pressler said. "This wasn't about the truth to many of the others involved. My story is all about the truth."
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| Customer Reviews: Read 31 more reviews...
 A little convoluted but still worth ploughing on May 28, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
It's obvious that this book is cobbled together from drafts of several authors with different writing styles which isn't all that annoying in itself. However, the chronic repetition of the same information is. That said it's still worth finishing the read. It's certainly a sad indictment on the media industry and justice system in the USA.
 disturbing, important, exhilarating April 11, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Even though I had followed the case at the time, I still read this in two nights flat - it's that good. This is an important book, heck it's an important story, particularly for "white people". I write that with hesitation, but heck that's the truth. How come "white" has almost become a term of abuse? "White boy" certainly has. And that's just it. They only reason this tall tale, this ridiculous hoax, went this far, affected so many lives, pushed so many people to the edge of their existence (could you post a $400, 000 bond for your son, whilst your wife is having a nervous breakdown) is that these were "white boys". Thus it was open season. Read with horror as these boys, because of making one mistake, one error of judgement, inviting a stripper to perform a private function in their home, lost their coach, their season, their house (many slept in their cars), were hounded off campus or formally expelled, threatened both verbally and by mail - all this after fully cooperating with the police, turning over all the physical evidence in their house without question, voluntarily took DNA tests - and it still took months and months, hundreds of thousands of dollars, perhaps millions (the lawyer fees of the indicted three estimated at $100,000 a month), an extraordinary display of loyalty and togetherness between their teamates, their relatives and neighbors and some great lawyers (their lawyers are to me, all heroes - one, Kirk Osborn, sadly died of a heart attack during the ordeal) to finally shake off the blatantly false allegation of a mentally unstable criminal supported by a madman whose daytime job was District Attorney. So we both cheer when they are finally vindicated by then wonder - is America crazy right now or what? What is this war on "white men" by the feminists, the race hustlers, the homosexuals, the Latinos and everybody else. I remember reading a post on a blog after this arose from a white male: "All the more reason just to keep your head down, get your sh** done in the daytime, and retire for the evening behind a locked door" - this is the reality for countless "privileged white males" in many parts of America today.
I couldn't recommend this book highly enough. If you have teenage sons or daughters preparing to go to college, they need to read this book.
OUTSTANDING!!!!!! April 10, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Exceedingly well written book. I have not stopped talking about it. This is not just a simple story of a high profile case. It focuses on how innocent people were directly affected in their every day lives by scandalous lies. The media never revealed this side of the story. It's unimaginable how this horrific mess could've happened. You can't stop but think what you would do had this happened to you. I was paralyzed reading what these people went through. You will truly be shocked, in disbelief to no end. I commend all the people who courageously stuck by and weathered the storm with all those who were unfortuneatly (directly and indirectly) involved. How utterly defiant, inexplicably brave. It just goes to show you the truth will always prevail. "It's Not About the Truth: The Untold Story of the Duke Lacrosse Case and the Lives It Shattered", is inspirationally AMAZING!!!
Nightmare in PC Country February 17, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Coach Mike Pressler knows better than most of us how it feels to be in the center of a raging inferno of politically correct rage--where truth and justice have no place.
In 2006, he was abruptly fired from his job as coach of Duke University's lacrosse team after three of his players were accused by a demented black female stripper of gang rape. These charges fed perfectly into a fanatically obsessed scenario found at most universities of white male treachery, black victomhood and feminist paranoia.
Duke President Richard Brodhead, his motor-mouth assistant, John Burness and board chairman, Bob Steele, quickly jumped on the politically correct bandwagon and let the public know that they were throwing the players into the raging inferno.
The administration refused to look at any of the exonerating proof of innocence of the accused that was continually offered to them by the defense attorneys.
The administration instead threw its support behind the psychopathic District Attorney Mike Nifong who knew early on that the rape charges were a hoax. The stripper, Crystal Mangum, had made the identical charges three years before against another group of men, but these, too, proved to be false.
The raging storm against the trio of young men grew stronger when the usual anti-white racists came out of the woodwork. Like the NC Chapter of the NAACP, the New Black Panthers Party, the local Pot Bangers group, made up of left-wing faculty and students. Racial arsonists like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson flew down to Durham, NC, to scream about white racist rapists and poor defenseless black women.
This reminded many of us ironically that Al Sharpton engineered an identical hoax in l986 when he spent a year pushing the notorious Tawana Brawley rape hoax in New York state. She accused a gang of white men of raping her. A grand jury said the charges were totally fabricated but in the meantime, Sharpton and Jackson had destroyed lives right and left. Brawley was never charged for her crimes. Sharpton received a slap on the wrist and has never apologized.
The authors reveal how corrupt members of the Durham police department, the district attorneys office, judges and many members of the black community of the city pushed their goal of railroading the trio of boys into prison for life. To hell with the truth.
The media coverage was so vicious, especially the New York Times, that it often felt as if all the news reports were being written by Mike Nifong and Al Sharpton.
At Duke, a gang of 88 faculty members (or a gang of 88 bigots) took out a full-page ad praising the protestors and urging them to "turn up the volume." Many of the teachers had lacrosse players in their classes and openly taunted them into admitting their guilt. None of the teachers ever apologized for their actions. Many were actually promoted, along with black activist students who had sent threatening e-mail to Coach Pressler.
President Brodhead was just recently lavishly praised by his board of directors for his handling of the rape hoax--and for for his unwavering support of the demented Mike Nifong.
When Pressler begged the administration to wait for the truth to come out before firing him and cancelling any appearances of the lacrosse team for a whole year, Duke's Athletic director, Joe Alleva told Pressler: "It's not about the truth." In those four words, you have revealed the heart of the people heading Duke University. And of all the other criminals who passionately pursued imprisonment for life for three young men who just happened to be white.
The Real Story February 2, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is a real page turner of a book. I was familiar with the work of Don Yaeger since he used to write for Sports Illustrated. He does not disappoint! I thought I knew the story but I wasn't even close to knowing the full story. He really brings it home and you feel like you know the person he writes about.
Mike Pressler, the coach who lost his job, gives a first person account of the events that took place and is fascinating. You will enjoy this book, trust me!! GO DUKE!
Gerard Zemek (husband of author of "My Funny Dad, Harry")
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