Was woman drugged and then assaulted?

Two Duke lacrosse players have been arrested in connection with the alleged rape of a 27-year-old woman. Two women were hired to perform as an exotic dancers at an off-campus party held March 13 by members of the team. The second woman said the accuser was "talkative and friendly and smiling" earlier in the night and incoherent later.

Was she drugged and then raped?

It's a scenario that happens to far too many young women on college campuses across the nation. This case has drawn national attention to Duke and Durham while underscoring issues of class and race between the private university and the city, which is largely middle class with a population that is about 45 percent black.

The accuser is Black, and the two men charged are white.

The New York Times reports:

Police initially thought the accuser was intoxicated but later took her to the Duke University Hospital emergency room. She had "signs, symptoms, and injuries consistent with being raped and sexually assaulted vaginally and anally," according to a district attorney's affidavit.

One of the men charged, Collin Finnerty of Garden City, N.Y., has a previous history of violence. According to the Times:

Mr. Finnerty had been arrested with two teammates from his high school lacrosse team in the Georgetown section of Washington on Nov. 5, after a man told police at 2:30 a.m. that they "had punched him in the face and body, because he told them to stop calling him gay and other derogatory names," according to court records.

It would appear that Mr. Finnerty is misogynist and homophobic -- traits that often go hand-in-hand. Finnerty and Reade Seligmann of Essex Fells, N.J., the other man charged, will have their day in court.

One can only hope that the young woman receives the justice she deserves for surviving this horrible incident.