Rape charges dropped in Duke case
Updated: 12/22/2006 3:17 PM
By: Associated Press
DURHAM, N.C. - Prosecutors dropped rape charges Friday against three Duke University lacrosse players accused of attacking a stripper at a team party, but the three still face kidnapping and sexual offense charges.
According to court papers filed Friday by District Attorney Mike Nifong, the accuser told a prosecution investigator on Thursday that she now does not know if she was penetrated during the alleged attack.
Nifong had previously said he could rely on the woman's account because of a lack of DNA evidence against the players.
Lacking any "scientific or other evidence independent of the victim's testimony" to corroborate that aspect of the case, Nifong wrote, "the State is unable to meet its burden of proof with respect to this offense."
Both rape and sexual offense carry the same possible sentence of up to 40 years in prison, while kidnapping is a lesser felony punishable by up to 17 1/2 years behind bars.
Nifong did not immediately return calls seeking comment Friday, and a sign posted on his office door read, "No media, please!" The county sheriff's department said no one from Nifong's office would comment Friday.
The accuser, a 28-year-old student at North Carolina Central University, has said three men raped her in a bathroom at a March 13 Duke lacrosse team party where she was hired to perform as a stripper.
The indicted players Dave Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann all say they are innocent. Their attorneys have consistently said no sex occurred at the party and cited a lack of DNA evidence as proof of their clients' innocence
"It's highly coincidental," said defense attorney Joseph Cheshire, that the charges are being dropped a week after the director of a private DNA testing lab acknowledged that he initially, with Nifong's knowledge, withheld from the defense test results showing none of the players' DNA was found on or in the accuser's body.
Testing also showed that genetic material from several males was found on her undergarments and body.
"The reality is, what else could the DA do?" said Stan Goldman, who teaches criminal law, evidence and criminal procedure at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. "Once the DNA evidence came out last week, I can't imagine how they could sustain a rape charge."
But Wendy Murphy, a former prosecutor who now teaches at the New England School of Law, said the decision could actually help Nifong by keeping any discussion about the results of the DNA testing away from the jury.
"It may be that this is a strategic move to insulate the trial itself from a sideshow that certainly would have overwhelmed all the other evidence," Murphy said. "A sideshow about her sex life."
Even so, the changing story hurts Nifong's case on the other charges, Goldman said.
"It strikes me that a case based on this particular complaining witnesses' credibility appears to be in jeopardy," he said.
Defense attorneys have said for months that the woman has told several different versions of the alleged assault, and Seligmann's attorney has said she has given investigators at least a dozen different versions of the alleged attack.
The defense also has argued that the woman misidentified her alleged attackers in a photo lineup and they have asked the judge to prevent the accuser from identifying the players from the witness stand.
Evans graduated from Duke in May, the day before he was indicted. Sophomores Finnerty and Seligmann were suspended following their April indictments. A Duke spokesman said school President Richard Brodhead would comment later Friday, and the players continued to get support from the university's new lacrosse coach.
"We still believe in the truth and we believe the other charges are false," said John Danowski, who replaced former coach Mike Pressler, who resigned in the wake of the rape allegations. "We'll stand by these kids and their families until the whole thing comes to a conclusion."
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