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Rape Charges Against Duke Players Dropped

Rape Charges Against Duke Players Dropped

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Rape Charges Against Duke Players Dropped

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• Rape Charges Against Duke Players Dropped

  Rape Charges Against Duke Players Dropped

  Rape Charges Against Duke Players Dropped

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• Roger Cossack on Duke Rape Dismissal

  Roger Cossack on Duke Rape Dismissal

  Roger Cossack on Duke Rape Dismissal
• Duke Defense Speaks Out

  Duke Defense Speaks Out

  Duke Defense Speaks Out
  Tags: NCAA Other Sports, Duke Blue Devils

DURHAM, N.C. -- The district attorney dropped rape charges Friday against three former Duke University lacrosse players after the stripper who accused them changed her story again. But the men still face kidnapping and sex charges that could bring more than 30 years in prison.

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"It's now the shifting sands again, the shifting factual theory," defense attorney Joseph Cheshire said. He added: "It is the ethical duty of a district attorney not to win a case, not to prosecute all cases, but to see that justice is done."

In dropping the rape charges, Nifong filed court papers that said the accuser told an investigator Thursday that she is no longer certain whether she was penetrated vaginally with the men's penises, as she had claimed earlier. Without any "scientific or other evidence independent of the victim's testimony" to corroborate that aspect of the case, he said, there is "insufficient evidence to warrant prosecution" for rape. "The state is unable to meet its burden of proof with respect to this offense," he wrote.

Nifong previously said he would rely on the woman's account because of a lack of DNA evidence against the players.

The remaining charges carry a possible punishment of more than 30 years in prison.

Nifong, a nearly three-decade veteran of the county prosecutor's office, had a sign posted on his office door reading, "No media, please!" But as he left, he said, "All the documents have been filed, and they speak for themselves."

In an interview Thursday with The New York Times, published late Friday on the newspaper's Web site, Nifong said the "case will go away" if the accuser ever says one of the players she identifed did not attack her.

"I've said I'm not interested in prosecuting somebody that's innocent," Nifong told The Times. "But until she tells me that, until she tells me these are not the right guys, we're prosecuting this case."

The accuser, a 28-year-old student at North Carolina Central University, has said three men raped her -- vaginally, anally and orally -- while holding her against her will in a bathroom at a team party where she was hired to perform as a stripper.

The indicted players all say they are innocent. Their attorneys have consistently said no sex occurred at the party and cited the lack of DNA evidence as proof of their clients' innocence.

The men are still charged with kidnapping, on suspicion of holding her against her will, and with sexual offense. Under state law, a rape charge requires vaginal intercourse, while sexual offense covers any sexual act.

A defendant's prior criminal record affects the length of their prison sentence in North Carolina. In the case of the three indicted players, Cheshire said, the rape and sexual offense carry the same possible sentence of up to 24 years in prison, while kidnapping is punishable by up to seven years.

The defense has complained that the stripper has given authorities at least a dozen versions of her story. Among other things, she has given conflicting accounts of the number of attackers -- anywhere from three to 20 -- and the ways in which she was supposedly assaulted. At least once, she told police she had not been assaulted.

Last week, it was learned that DNA testing arranged by the prosecution at a private lab found that there was genetic material from several men on the stripper's underwear and body, but that none of it came from the players.

"The reality is, what else could the DA do?" said Stan Goldman, who teaches criminal law 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 teaches at the New England School of Law, said the decision could help Nifong by keeping any discussion of 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.

Evans graduated in May, the day before he was indicted. Sophomores Finnerty and Seligmann were suspended following their April indictments.

"I am greatly relieved for the students and their families that the most serious of the charges has been dropped," said Duke President Richard Brodhead in a statement. "Given the certainty with which the district attorney made his many public statements regarding the rape allegation, his decision today to drop that charge must call into question the validity of the remaining charges."

Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press