Duke athletes' rape case over, but deep wounds remain

RALEIGH, N.C. — All along, the three Duke lacrosse players proclaimed they were innocent of charges they sexually assaulted a stripper. They were railroaded, they insisted, by a prosecutor who ignored the facts.

North Carolina's top prosecutor finally agreed with them more than a year later.

Attorney General Roy Cooper on Wednesday declared them innocent of all charges and delivered a blistering assessment of a district attorney he blamed for a "tragic rush to accuse" in a case that became a national media sensation.

The announcement draws to a close a racially charged legal drama that opened with the three white players being vilified as privileged "hooligans" — Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong's word — who had gang-raped a 28-year-old black stripper at an off-campus team party March 13, 2006. They were charged with rape, kidnapping and sexual offense.

The case also heightened long-standing tensions in Durham between its large, working-class black population and the mostly white, affluent students at the private, elite university.

While the players, teammates and families bathed in a sense of relief, others in the community said they still harbor doubts about whether justice was done.

Irving Joyner, a North Carolina Central University law professor who has been monitoring the case for the NAACP, said the black community will want to be satisfied with reasons for the dismissal — especially because black leaders initially were concerned that a low-income black woman's word would not be taken against that of privileged white men.

He said he is "troubled and concerned by the carnival atmosphere being created here — that these three men are somehow coming home for a victory party."

After reviewing the case for 12 weeks and interviewing witnesses, including the accuser, Cooper's team concluded there was no credible evidence of an attack — no DNA evidence and no witnesses who could corroborate the woman's accusations. One of her accounts was contradicted by time-stamped photographs and phone records.

A written summary of those factual findings will be released next week. Cooper added that perjury charges against the accuser were considered but ultimately rejected. "Our investigators think that she may actually believe the many different stories that she has been telling," he said.

Asked whether the accuser had psychological problems, Cooper said court records possibly addressing the issue were sealed. A doctor who examined the woman the night of the supposed attack said she had a history of bipolar disorder and was "at very high risk of narcotic abuse," according to court documents.

The Seattle Times is not naming the woman because of indications that she may be mentally ill. Her whereabouts were not immediately known.

Hours after the announcement, David Evans, Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty, along with their families and many former teammates, gathered at a Raleigh hotel ballroom.

"We're just as innocent today as we were back then," Evans said. "Nothing has changed. The facts don't change."

Amid hugs, praise for the attorneys and declarations of relief that the "nightmare" had ended, the players and their attorneys excoriated members of the media who had jumped to conclusions.

They also wondered aloud what must happen to those who are falsely accused but lack the means to hire a phalanx of attorneys and experts.

"It's been 395 days since this nightmare began, and finally the day has come for closure," Evans said. "... I hope these allegations don't come to define me. I hope that the way I could be remembered is for sticking up for my name, my family and my team against impossible odds — the entire country against us."

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

A reporter eventually asked about strippers being present at the party.

"We've lost a sense of proportionality here," said James Cooney, a lawyer for Seligmann. "No one's proud of that party, and they've expressed regret for it." But to suggest that the party justifies the charges is ridiculous, he said.

Evans has graduated. Seligmann and Finnerty plan to return to college in the fall but not to Duke, their families said. The father of one of the two still in college said he never would let his son return to Durham County as long as Nifong is the district attorney.

Finnerty was convicted last year of an assault stemming from a street altercation in Washington, D.C. He was placed on six months' probation.

As for the accuser, Cooper said, she still wants to proceed with the prosecution.

By dropping all charges against the players, though, Cooper all but ensured that only one person will be held accountable: Nifong.

A criminal investigation of the district attorney is a "possibility," Cooper said, noting the North Carolina bar is investigating an ethics complaint against him. Nifong did not return calls, but 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 took over the case in January after Nifong was charged with the ethics violation, which could lead to disbarment.

"In the rush to condemn, a community and a state lost the ability to see clearly," Cooper said.

The case was troubled almost from the start. In addition to the lack of DNA evidence, one of the athletes said he had ATM receipts and time-stamped photos that provided an alibi. It also was learned the stripper had leveled similar gang-rape allegations a decade ago, and no charges resulted.

Nifong dropped the rape charges in December after the woman said she wasn't certain she had been penetrated; the other charges remained until Wednesday.

Portraying Nifong as a "rogue prosecutor," Cooper called for the passage of a law that would allow the North Carolina Supreme Court to remove a district attorney where justice demands it.

The district attorney withdrew from the case in January after the North Carolina bar charged him with making misleading and inflammatory comments to the media. The bar later added more serious charges of withholding evidence from defense attorneys and lying to the court.

Among other things, Nifong called the athletes "hooligans" and declared DNA evidence would identify the guilty. He also was accused of withholding results of lab tests that found DNA from several men — none of them lacrosse team members — on the accuser's underwear and body.

Duke suspended Seligmann, 21, of Essex Fells, N.J., and Finnerty, 20, of Garden City, N.Y., after their arrest. Evans, 24, of Bethesda, Md., graduated the day before he was indicted.

In the uproar over the allegations, Duke canceled the rest of the team's 2006 season, the lacrosse coach resigned under fire and a schism opened up on the faculty between those who supported the athletes and those who accused them of getting away with loutish, frat-boy behavior.

The team resumed play this year.

"Two days after this happened, I knew what the truth was. When you say you believe in somebody, when you say you believe the truth, you stand by them," said former Duke lacrosse coach Mike Pressler, now lacrosse coach at Bryant University in Smithfield, R.I.