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Excellent post from Her Loyal Sons on the Lizzy Seeburg situation
Unfortunately, I’ve not had a chance to do a proper write up of the Army game, and I don’t feel right about doing so before recognizing that a far more serious story has been exposed by the Chicago Tribune; that of the tragic death of Saint Mary’s College freshman Lizzy Seeburg 2 months ago, and the alleged sexual assault of which she was a victim 9 days prior to her death.
We’ve received a number of e-mails, tweets, and comments in other posts questioning the behavior of the University of Notre Dame, its football team, and the Notre Dame Security Police. We find such questions difficult to answer in part because we don’t know many facts, and in larger part because, frankly, the actions of the Chicago Tribune both in reporting the story and then opining on the story have obfuscated any facts that may otherwise been known to the point of making a mockery of journalism. The Chicago Tribune’s actions have done a disservice to journalism, a disservice to Notre Dame, and, worst of all, a disservice to the family of Lizzy Seeberg.
Nate, one of our regular commenters, made an excellent post on our Sideline Forum regarding this entire mess, and I think it articulates many of my thoughts on the matter quite well:
I think all of us here would agree that if there is a case against a player on the team, be it Dayne Crist, Kyle Rudolph, Mike Floyd, Manti Teo, Barry Gallup, or Joe Blow, it doesn’t matter: take him off the field once evidence has been presented. I’m encouraged that the Univ has taken the calm approach and done some due diligence in investigating before making a knee-jerk reaction (see: Elam, Abram, and McCarthy, Kyle) this time.
…
I sincerely pray for the girl’s family, and hope they get closure. I hope that if one of our players was involved in an illegal, negative way with this girl before she took her life, that the player has to pay the necessary penalty. But jumping to conclusions and damning someone without a full investigation isn’t productive.
Further, to head off any more questions about the identity of the player under these accusations and questions about any perceived “lack” of response by the university and their police department, let me just say this: 1) The NDSP is a state certified police department, and the case of the alleged sexual assault falls under their jurisdiction. And by accounts from the St. Joseph County Prosecutor’s Office, the NDSP made the prosecutors aware of the case and their investigation before the Chicago Tribune got ahold of the story. Far too many people seem confused as to why the NDSP didn’t just write up a report and then refer the assault case to the South Bend Police Department. It would be akin to the Trenton, NJ police taking a report and then asking the NYPD to investigate the matter, as far as we can tell. 2) Notre Dame has a legitimate (and possibly legal) interest in protecting the identity of the accused football player in this matter. To punish the student athlete by benching him as a response to the allegation, and only the allegation, without compelling evidence to support the allegation, would severely risk the life of that student athlete. Crimes of a sexual nature carry far more stigma than most any other crime, and to even be publicly identified under these allegations could be disastrous to that student (and tragic, if the allegations are unfounded). 3) It’s not under Brian Kelly’s purview to even attempt to identify the facts of this case, nor should it be. I don’t want Brian Kelly, with any of his conflicts-of-interest, investigating this matter any more than I’d want Urban Meyer trying to investigate any criminal cases that occur on the campus of the University of Florida. 4) The apparent suicide by Lizzy Seeberg provides not one modicum of “proof” of the allegations. Nobody, near as we can tell, has made any claims to knowing the mental state of the young woman in her last days of life, nor should they feel qualified to do so. 5) We do not know the identity of the accused player and we do not wish to know. When not so much as charges from the Prosecutor’s office have been levied, we choose to not cast such a shadow on the character of anyone until such time as charges may be brought forth and call that character into question. Further, even if we did know, we’d not identify him here or via any other form of communication. It’s out of our purview to do so, and would be, at best, a legal misstep.
Finally, I’d like to reiterate how we at HLS wish nothing but peace for Lizzy Seeburg, closure for her grieving family, and justice for any crimes if any crimes were, in fact, committed.
We’ve received a number of e-mails, tweets, and comments in other posts questioning the behavior of the University of Notre Dame, its football team, and the Notre Dame Security Police. We find such questions difficult to answer in part because we don’t know many facts, and in larger part because, frankly, the actions of the Chicago Tribune both in reporting the story and then opining on the story have obfuscated any facts that may otherwise been known to the point of making a mockery of journalism. The Chicago Tribune’s actions have done a disservice to journalism, a disservice to Notre Dame, and, worst of all, a disservice to the family of Lizzy Seeberg.
Nate, one of our regular commenters, made an excellent post on our Sideline Forum regarding this entire mess, and I think it articulates many of my thoughts on the matter quite well:
I think all of us here would agree that if there is a case against a player on the team, be it Dayne Crist, Kyle Rudolph, Mike Floyd, Manti Teo, Barry Gallup, or Joe Blow, it doesn’t matter: take him off the field once evidence has been presented. I’m encouraged that the Univ has taken the calm approach and done some due diligence in investigating before making a knee-jerk reaction (see: Elam, Abram, and McCarthy, Kyle) this time.
…
I sincerely pray for the girl’s family, and hope they get closure. I hope that if one of our players was involved in an illegal, negative way with this girl before she took her life, that the player has to pay the necessary penalty. But jumping to conclusions and damning someone without a full investigation isn’t productive.
Further, to head off any more questions about the identity of the player under these accusations and questions about any perceived “lack” of response by the university and their police department, let me just say this: 1) The NDSP is a state certified police department, and the case of the alleged sexual assault falls under their jurisdiction. And by accounts from the St. Joseph County Prosecutor’s Office, the NDSP made the prosecutors aware of the case and their investigation before the Chicago Tribune got ahold of the story. Far too many people seem confused as to why the NDSP didn’t just write up a report and then refer the assault case to the South Bend Police Department. It would be akin to the Trenton, NJ police taking a report and then asking the NYPD to investigate the matter, as far as we can tell. 2) Notre Dame has a legitimate (and possibly legal) interest in protecting the identity of the accused football player in this matter. To punish the student athlete by benching him as a response to the allegation, and only the allegation, without compelling evidence to support the allegation, would severely risk the life of that student athlete. Crimes of a sexual nature carry far more stigma than most any other crime, and to even be publicly identified under these allegations could be disastrous to that student (and tragic, if the allegations are unfounded). 3) It’s not under Brian Kelly’s purview to even attempt to identify the facts of this case, nor should it be. I don’t want Brian Kelly, with any of his conflicts-of-interest, investigating this matter any more than I’d want Urban Meyer trying to investigate any criminal cases that occur on the campus of the University of Florida. 4) The apparent suicide by Lizzy Seeberg provides not one modicum of “proof” of the allegations. Nobody, near as we can tell, has made any claims to knowing the mental state of the young woman in her last days of life, nor should they feel qualified to do so. 5) We do not know the identity of the accused player and we do not wish to know. When not so much as charges from the Prosecutor’s office have been levied, we choose to not cast such a shadow on the character of anyone until such time as charges may be brought forth and call that character into question. Further, even if we did know, we’d not identify him here or via any other form of communication. It’s out of our purview to do so, and would be, at best, a legal misstep.
Finally, I’d like to reiterate how we at HLS wish nothing but peace for Lizzy Seeburg, closure for her grieving family, and justice for any crimes if any crimes were, in fact, committed.
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