All charges dropped in Duke case

RALEIGH, N.C. - Rather than simply drop the sexual-assault charges against three Duke University lacrosse players, North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper yesterday turned the tables on the prosecutor and, after castigating him as a "rogue" who acted out of "bravado," said he could face a criminal investigation for his pursuit of the case.

"We believe that these cases were the result of a tragic rush to accuse and a failure to verify serious allegations," Cooper said. "There were many points in this case where caution would have served justice better than bravado."

A criminal investigation of Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong is a "possibility," he said, noting that the North Carolina bar is already investigating an ethics complaint against him.

Nifong did not return calls to his office. His lawyer, David Freedman, told ABC News that "he pushed the case as long as he did because at that point he believed in this case."

Cooper's announcement drew to a close a racially charged legal drama that opened with the three white players being vilified as privileged "hooligans" - Nifong's word - accused of gang-raping a black stripper at an off-campus team party March 13, 2006.

But after reviewing the case for 12 weeks and interviewing witnesses, including the accuser, Cooper's team completely recast the scenario.

There was no credible evidence of any attack - there was no DNA evidence and no witnesses at the party who could corroborate the accuser's account, Cooper said. The accusation also could not be corroborated by time-stamped photographs and phone records.

A written summary of the factual findings that investigators relied on to conclude that no attack occurred will be released next week. Cooper added that perjury charges against the accuser were considered but ultimately rejected, because she appears to believe in her uncorroborated, sometimes contradictory accounts of a sexual assault.

Hours after the announcement, former defendants David Evans, 24; Reade Seligmann, 21, and Collin Finnerty, 20, along with their families and many of their former teammates, gathered at a Raleigh hotel ballroom. Amid hugs, praise for the attorneys, and declarations of relief that the yearlong "nightmare" was over, the players and their attorneys excoriated members of the media who had jumped to conclusions early on.

"It's been 395 days since this nightmare began, and finally the day has come for closure," said Evans of Annapolis, Md. ". . . To have people in the media relating you to Hitler and other terrible people from history when you have done nothing wrong - that is character to sit there and take that."

Seligmann said, "The entire experience has opened my eyes up to a tragic world of injustice I never knew existed."

"If police officers and a district attorney can systematically railroad us with absolutely no evidence whatsoever, I can't imagine what they'd do to people who do not have the resources to defend themselves," he said.

Asked about whether the players would consider a legal action against Nifong, Evans attorney Joseph Cheshire said all options were on the table.

Legal experts say district attorneys cannot be sued for actions within the scope of their job but can be held liable for actions outside that scope.

Evans has graduated. Seligmann of Essex Fells, N.J., and Finnerty of Garden City, N.Y., plan to return to college in the fall but not to Duke, their families said.

Finnerty was convicted last year of a 2005 assault charge stemming from a street altercation in Washington and was given six months' probation.

Duke president Richard H. Brodhead said in a statement that he welcomed yesterday's dropping of the charges, saying the players had "carried themselves with dignity through an ordeal of deep unfairness."

Others in the community said they still harbored doubts about whether justice was done.

Irving Joyner, a law professor at North Carolina Central University who has monitored the case for the NAACP, said blacks would want to be satisfied with the reasons for the dismissal - especially since early in the case, some were concerned that a low-income black woman's word would not be taken against that of privileged white men.

The accuser was originally depicted as a victim of race and class antagonisms, and candlelight vigils were held for her. But her lack of credibility helped sink the case.

DNA tests did not turn up matches with the players, and material from several other males were found in her vagina and on her underwear.

Nifong's handling of the case began to come under increasing fire last fall, when defense attorneys complained that he had not turned over to them all the evidence required by law. At a Dec. 15 hearing, it was revealed he had withheld some of the exculpatory DNA evidence.

The state bar first accused him of making improper pretrial public statements, then levied more serious charges of withholding evidence from defense attorneys and making false statements to the judge, defense lawyers and the bar. The allegations could lead to his disbarment. Nifong is to appear before a three-person administrative panel tomorrow to argue that the charges should be dismissed.

Cooper proposed a law that would enable the state Supreme Court to step in under certain circumstances to remove a district attorney from a case.

"In the rush to condemn, a community and the state lost the ability to see clearly," he said. "Today we need to learn from this and keep it from happening again to anybody."

To view a video report on

the news conference and reaction of students, go to http://go.philly.com/dukelacrosse

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2006

March 13: Duke University lacrosse players throw an off-campus party, hiring

two strippers.

March 14: One stripper tells police she was forced into

a bathroom by three men and was beaten, raped

and sodomized.

March 23: Forty-six of 47 team members comply with a judge's order to provide DNA. The sole black member is not tested, because the accuser said her attackers were white.

March 28: Duke suspends the lacrosse team from play.

March 29: Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong calls team members "hooligans."

April 4: The accuser

identifies her alleged attackers in a photo lineup.

April 5: Lacrosse coach Mike Pressler resigns. Duke's president cancels the rest

of the season.

April 10: Defense attorneys announce that DNA tests fail to connect any of the players to the accuser.

April 17: A grand jury

indicts Reade Seligmann

and Collin Finnerty on rape and other charges.

April 25: Granville County authorities confirm that the accuser told police 10 years ago she was raped at age 14 by three men; none of them were charged.

May 15: The grand jury indicts team co-captain

David Evans on rape charges. He calls the allegations "fantastic lies."

June 5: Duke's president says the team can resume play in 2007 under close monitoring.

Nov. 7: Nifong is reelected.

Dec. 15: A DNA lab director testifies that in an agreement with Nifong, he omitted from a report that genetic material from several men - none

of them team members - was found in the accuser's underwear and body.

Dec. 22: Nifong drops the rape charges. The players still face charges of sexual offense and kidnapping.

Dec. 28: The North Carolina bar files ethics charges against Nifong.

2007

Jan. 3: Duke invites Finnerty and Seligmann to return to school. (They have not done so.) The accuser gives birth; both sides later say she was not impregnated at the party.

Jan. 12: Nifong asks to withdraw from the case because of the ethics allegations against him.

Jan. 13: North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper takes over the case.

Yesterday: Cooper drops

all charges, accusing Nifong of overreaching.

SOURCE: Associated Press

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