The University of Virginia is reeling today from the news that a member of its top-ranked men’s lacrosse team has been accused of murdering a player on the women’s lacrosse team.
George Huguely, a senior, was arrested this morning and has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of Yeardley Love, also a senior, authorities in Charlottesville said earlier today. Mr. Huguely is in custody.
Few details have emerged at this early stage, but here’s what we do know: Police were called to Ms. Love’s apartment around 2 a.m. for a possible alcohol overdose, and found Ms. Love, who was pronounced dead at the scene and had “suffered visible physical trauma,” according to a police statement. Mr. Huguely was arrested a short time later.
The university’s president, John T. Casteen III, said the death “moves us to deep anguish.” In what is clearly a carefully crafted statement, he went on to say: “That she appears now to have been murdered by another student compounds this sense of loss.”
Appears. What a difference one word makes. Earlier in the day, one of Mr. Casteen’s colleagues, Leonard W. Sandridge, the university’s chief operating officer, was markedly less guarded in his choice of words. “The shock and disappointment and concern is magnified by the fact that she was murdered by one of our own,” he told the Roanoke Times.
It’s a strong statement given that university officials usually walk on eggshells to avoid doing what we in the news business call “convicting someone in print.” Maybe it was a misquote. Or maybe it was a candid comment from a man who was simply stunned—and had yet to be coached by lawyers on how (or how not) to talk to the press.
For the next few days, Virginia will be known as the site of a murder involving two photogenic athletes from a top lacrosse program. And officials will learn, quickly, how to grapple with the unwelcome scrutiny that only a shocking crime can bring.
14 Responses to Elite Program, Awful Crime
inmyhumbleopinion - May 4, 2010 at 1:29 am
Sandridge’s comment was not a misquote:http://www.nbc29.com/global/Category.asp?C=175568&autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=4753213&flvUri=&partnerclipid= “As you can imagine the entire university community is both shocked and saddened over the news of Miss Love’s death by the hand of a murderer, but that shock, disappointment, and concern, of course, is magnified by the fact that she was murdered by one of our own, and that, of course, is something that will take our community a long time to work through and to deal with.” ~snip~ “We are very grateful for the work of the Charlottesville Police Department in getting to the bottom of this quickly. You can imagine that when these kinds of incidences occur they are horrible under any set of circumstances, but uncertainty and not knowing what happened is particularly difficult for a community like the University of Virgina to deal with and so we have pledged full cooperation and support for anything Chief Longo and his team need as part of this investigation…..”
ald8m - May 4, 2010 at 10:26 am
The most important aspect of this horrible tragedy is word choice? Come on, Libby, we expect better from a writer for the Chronicle. This isn’t the NY Post.
bdr8y - May 4, 2010 at 10:42 am
ald8m, my thought exactly. Libby, at one point in drafting this did exegetical analysis strike you as most salient dimension of this scenario? You could have ended with Casteen’s quote and saved the smart, critical hipster angle some for something else.
ovpstaff - May 4, 2010 at 10:43 am
This is a team that, sadly, is not new to handling “unwelcome scrutiny.” From handling the death of a senior from drinking her “fourth year fifth” and falling to her death to responding to deaths and injuries that occurred after a Pavilion balcony collapsed during commencement exercises, this team — yes, the same players — has always proceeded with the utmost care for victims, professionalism with respect to investigations, and forthrightness with respect to media coverage. Check your facts, Libby, before you cast aspersions on decent folk who are trying to do the right thing in the midst of a frenzy created by you and your ilk.
andyj - May 4, 2010 at 11:06 am
Vice President Sandridge was quoted correctly, “The shock and disappointment and concern is magnified by the fact that she was murdered by one of our own.” He said this on camera and it was aired repeatedly on ESPN’s Sports Center last night. I could not believe what I heard, so I rewound and played it again. Unbelievable. Have university administrators learned nothing from the way the Duke leadership and faculty responded to imprudent press coverage of what turned out to be the Duke lacrosse rape fraud? Eventually Duke President Richard Brodhead apologized publicly for the manner in which he and his administrated mishandled the situation and contributed to the injustice inflicted on three young men who were found by the state Attorney General to be “innocent” of the charges. Even still, because the Duke administration and some of the faculty acted so hastily and imprudently there are those who still believe “whatever they did was bad enough.” The Duke situation was a sudden storm swept to violent proportions by the media and a politically self serving (and later disbarred) District Attorney. Duke officials had no way to see it coming. But UVA administrators had ample opportunity, as we all have, to learn from the unprecedented publicity of the Duke experience. How irresponsible these public statements.
getwell - May 4, 2010 at 3:44 pm
A university female student was brutally murdered…who gives a rat’s ass if a statement by a university official is politically correct?!
princeton67 - May 4, 2010 at 4:44 pm
Why does Ms. Sander use “photogenic” to describe the athletes? Exactly what does their comeliness have to do with heinousness of the crime? If they were merely average, or homely, would the crime be less “shocking”?
ellenhunt - May 4, 2010 at 5:41 pm
And now the young man is claiming that he accidentally killed her immediately following a breakup. In the course of his “accident” he kicked her door in, smashed her head against a wall repeatedly so that she was found in a pool of blood, and stole her computer. This boy is a horror, although not an experienced one. For him to think that is an accident is … This is the end of your life as you knew it child-in-a-man’s-body.
ellenhunt - May 4, 2010 at 5:42 pm
princeton67 – The answer to your question is that in this media-obsessed age we don’t care nearly so much about the doings of unattractive people.
jegraves - May 4, 2010 at 8:59 pm
Very sad. My heart and prayers go out to Ms Love’s family and friends and the enire UVA community.
mkruege - May 5, 2010 at 9:32 am
“An Elite Lacrosse Program Suffers an Awful Crime” announces Academe Today’s headline.UVA’s lacrosse program–”eliteness” aside–did not suffer a crime.Yeardley Love did.
rappolt - May 5, 2010 at 11:46 am
That they were lacrosse players is irrelevant. This appears to be a heinous crime suffered my Ms Love. Would it be any more relevant if they were both history majors. “HIstory program Suffers an Awful crime.” It would be just a silly headline.
bradleyhockey - May 5, 2010 at 11:58 am
If the student played basketball and hailed from the inner city would there be a possibility to keep him out of prison especially if he maintained decent grades?Every article written seems to concentrate on his “name”, “private school”, and parent’s donation status. Is this relevent?
citizenship - May 5, 2010 at 12:27 pm
Seemingly pejorative words and statements like “elite”, “In what is clearly a carefully crafted statement…”, “photogenic” and “…had yet to be coached by lawyers on how (or how not) to talk to the press” have no place in what should be sensitive and balanced reporting of a tragedy.Every athletic program and most, if not all, academic programs are going to be “elite” in the sense that membership is going to be limited to those who show the best potential to make use of limited membership or enrollment. Isn’t writing for the Chronicle an elite assignment? Does the make the author an elitist?I would certainly hope a university president or other spokesman would “carefully craft” a response to a horrendous event such as this. People need assurance and some level of stability as well as information when confronted with stunning news. I can’t say the crafting that went into writing this article was very careful.I can’t even fathom why a writer would use the subjective term “photogenic” in this news article. What is the point? How does it help the article? Shall we make comments on the author’s photograph?What is the writer’s agenda for using the statement about being coached by lawyers? Has she been “coached by lawyers for The Chronicle on what she can write in a story?