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Duke lacrosse players sue Nifong, city By AARON BEARD, Associated Press Writer 1 minute ago Three former Duke lacrosse players falsely accused of rape filed a federal lawsuit Friday against disgraced prosecutor Mike Nifong, the city of Durham and the police detectives who handled the investigation. The lawsuit calls the criminal case against Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty and Dave Evans was "one of the most chilling episodes of premeditated police, prosecutorial and scientific misconduct in modern American history." The lawsuit seeks unspecified punitive and compensatory damages, attorneys fees and numerous reforms to the way the Durham Police Department handles criminal...

Raleigh — The man who once pursued rape, sexual assault and kidnapping charges against three former Duke lacrosse players who were later declared innocent by North Carolina's attorney general says he will resign. (Watch Mike Nifong's announcement.) "My community has suffered enough," a tearful Mike Nifong said Friday during his testimony at his State Bar ethics trial to the surprise of the families and defense attorneys of the cleared lacrosse players, as well as others in the courtroom. "Throughout the years I have served as a prosecutor I have always tried to do the right thing," a tearful Mike Nifong...

A long-awaited report from the North Carolina attorney general's office, issued Friday, gives exact details of the evidence that led the office to exonerate the three former Duke University lacrosse players who had been accused of sexual assault in the wake of an off-campus party last spring. The 21-page report details the alibi of Garden City's Collin Finnerty along with the other two accused players, Reade Seligmann of Essex Fells, N.J., and David Evans of Bethesda, Md. on the night of the party. Attorney General Roy Cooper said the voluminous evidence his special prosecutors gathered in a three-month period established...

Full 21-page report, thoroughly exonerating Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty and David Evans (and utterly lambasting false accuser Crystal Gail Mangum), here.

Crystal Gail Mangum insists she was sexually assaulted at a Duke lacrosse team party, even though the state attorney general dropped all charges this week because of a lack of evidence and her conflicting versions. Mangum isn't offering an explanation. She continues to avoid reporters as she has in the year since she first claimed she was raped by three athletes. Even the people who know her only obscure the picture with their own contradictions about who she is. But interviews and records obtained by The News & Observer make this much clear: The 28-year-old woman has struggled with poverty,...

HER name is Crystal Gail Man gum. She is the woman who falsely accused three Duke University students of rape. Yesterday, the attorney general of North Carolina came forward and flatly declared the three young men "innocent of these charges." That means their accuser is a liar. Her name is Crystal Gail Mangum. It is the policy of the news media not to publish the names of rape accusers on the grounds that they should not have to fear public shame for coming forward with word of a horrifying personal violation. That is a noble policy. But it needs a...

RALEIGH, N.C. — Three members of Duke University's lacrosse team could learn Wednesday whether state prosecutors will drop the remaining charges accusing them of sexually assaulting a stripper at a team party more than a year ago. "I think it's likely that they will do that," said Wade Smith, an attorney for charged player Collin Finnerty. "We certainly hope that would be true. But until we hear it, we're not going to acknowledge that's the truth. We'll wait and see." The state Attorney General's Office has scheduled a 2:30 p.m. news conference to discuss the case. It is unclear whether...

"The woman adjusted the timing of the assault to earlier in the evening, a time point preceding the well-documented alibi of one accused player, Reade Seligmann. The defense, however, introduced yet more alibi evidence for Seligmann: he was on the cell phone with his girlfriend during the height of the attack as the accuser now times it." "* In her latest statement she said the attack ended at midnight. In previous accounts, the woman said the gang-rape ended shortly before she left in the car driven by Kim Roberts, the second dancer. Roberts called 911 as she was driving away...

Then, just last month, the director of a DNA laboratory that tested samples taken from the woman testified that he and the prosecutor had agreed in May to withhold some of the findings. The exculpatory nature of the results - specifically, that the swabs included traces of semen from several men, none of them the Duke defendants - offer the strongest evidence yet that the prosecutor himself should be the subject of an investigation, and that he should have no further connection with this case.

Raleigh — The North Carolina State Bar has filed an ethics complaint against Duke lacrosse prosecutor Mike Nifong.

DURHAM -- A lawyer with the state NAACP said the civil rights organization intends to seek a gag order in the Duke lacrosse case, and a journalist who participated in a forum with him on Wednesday said media coverage of the alleged rape may deprive the alleged victim of her legal rights to a fair trial. Al McSurely, an attorney who chairs the Legal Redress Committee for the state National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said he generally respects the defense attorneys in the case as colleagues. But they are violating the State Bar's rules of professional conduct...

DURHAM, N.C. Apr 10, 2006 (AP)— DNA testing failed to connect any members of the Duke University lacrosse team to the alleged rape of a stripper, attorneys for the athletes said Monday. Citing DNA test results delivered by the state crime lab to police and prosecutors a few hours earlier, the attorneys said the test results prove their clients did not sexually assault and beat a stripper hired to perform at a March 13 team party.