Delaware star thrives after being falsely accused

The cops pulled Vince Giordano away from his friend. They called him a racist, slapped handcuffs on him and told him he was going to jail.

If Giordano was famous, he would've thought he was being Punk'd.

The NCAA lacrosse Final Four is set in Baltimore this weekend, and for the uninitiated, the part that probably registers is Duke's there. But the Blue Devils aren't the only ones seeking redemption. Giordano, a junior star for upstart Delaware, also suffered a gross miscarriage of justice and he's awfully easy to root for.

Last August, Giordano was out in the New Jersey shore town of Sea Isle City, about two hours south of his hometown. He and a buddy from high school were leaving a party, blissfully unaware that a few blocks away, three guys were taking a baseball bat to a man's head.

The victim was a police officer from Pennsylvania who was out with two other police officers. His friends are white, he is black. The white officers weren't touched and, suddenly, Giordano was accused of a hate crime.

"I've never even gotten a noise violation at school," Giordano said.

The Sea Isle cops had caught two of the real assailants, and then corralled Giordano, saying he fit the description they'd been given. Nothing placed Giordano at the scene, the two other suspects didn't know him, but no one felt like clearing the fresh-faced kid who was just 43 days past his 21st birthday.

"It was surreal," he said. It only got worse.

"Lacrosse" and "felon" read like a cattle call for the local media, and Giordano was under siege. Thinking he was helping, Giordano's Dad looked at the freshman-year photo the news stations kept flashing, the one where Vince has a full beard, and joked to his son, "No wonder they think you're a punk."

But the couple of weeks Giordano thought it would take to clear his name passed, and Delaware told him he couldn't enroll for fall classes. The charges weren't going away. His mug shot was so ubiquitous, he was so embarrassed he barely left the house that first month.