Duke Lacrosse Case Charges to Be Dropped

Three Players Were Facing Charges of First Degree Kidnapping, First Degree Forcible Sexual Offense

Duke

 

The three Duke lacrosse players originally charged with raping a dancer at a private party soon will not be charged, ABC News has learned. The state attorney general took over the case in January, after Durham County prosecutor Mike Nifong recused himself under pressure, claiming a conflict of interest because the North Carolina State Bar Association charged him with misconduct in the Duke case. (AP Photo )

US Headlines

 

By LARA SETRAKIAN

ABC News Law & Justice Unit

 

April 10, 2007 ? The office of North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper will announce that he is dismissing all charges against three Duke Lacrosse players, ABC News has learned from sources close to the case.

 

The three players, Reade Seligmann, David Evans and Collin Finnerty, were facing charges of first degree kidnapping and first degree forcible sexual offense. The charges stem from an off-campus party on the night of March 13, 2006.

 

In the hours after the party, one of two dancers hired to perform for the players claimed she had been violently raped in a bathroom by members of the lacrosse team. The players had also been indicted for first degree rape, but that charge was dismissed on Dec. 22, 2006.

 

Special prosecutors from the Attorney General's office took over the case after Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong recused himself in January, citing charges of unethical conduct filed against him by the North Carolina Bar. Since then, Jim Coman and Mary Winstead have examined the case from scratch, interviewing key witnesses and working through reams of evidence.

 

The reasons that will be cited for the dismissal are not yet known, though the case has been riddled with criticism and colored by controversy since its early months. Defense attorneys released documents showing the accuser changed key details of her story in the weeks and months after the alleged assault.

 

Legal analysts and forensic experts have criticized what they call a critically flawed photo identification lineup ? a lineup that led to the identification and indictment of Evans, Finnerty, Seligmann. No DNA evidence was found matching any lacrosse players with samples from the rape kit, while DNA from unidentified men was found on the accuser's body and clothing.

 

On Tuesday, a spokeswoman for the Attorney General confirmed to ABC News that his office had completed its investigation into the Duke lacrosse case. A press conference on the outcome of their inquiry is widely expected sometime this week, though members of that office have not yet revealed a date and time.

now they should sue duke itself for how the unniversity treated them when they were in fact innocent

This should have been done a long time ago, this has ruined the players lives. Nifong should be removed from office.

now they should sue duke itself for how the unniversity treated them when they were in fact innocent

i agree

 

This should have been done a long time ago, this has ruined the players lives. Nifong should be removed from office.

i agree...as i said before, a girl that cries rape already has a conviction

I agree wholeheartedly that the prosecutor should be fired, and I believe he needs to at least lose his job. From watching a few programs about this situation, it appears to me that he was more concerned about winning re-election than letting justice be served when he charged these students.

 

This was a great miscarriage of justice, and a clear case where the prosecutor stepped far over the line.

I would like to see apologies come from the Black Panthers, Al Sharpton, and Jesse Jackson for their awful remarks. I remember the images of the Black Panther organization standing outside the courthouse making all sorts of obsecenities toward these men.

let the civil lawsuits begin!

Do you guys realize how many people are arrested, actually detained before trial, held for long stretches, and then have the charges dropped against them? Welcome to the real world of a lot of people.

 

Im not saying it is bad-it clearly is. But it annoys me how this prosecutor's office is somehow the only one in the country that has ever done this.

Do you guys realize how many people are arrested, actually detained before trial, held for long stretches, and then have the charges dropped against them? Welcome to the real world of a lot of people.

 

Im not saying it is bad-it clearly is. But it annoys me how this prosecutor's office is somehow the only one in the country that has ever done this.

 

I think the reason is that it is such a high profile case and everyone assumed that they did it.

 

I hope they sue the school, get the prosecutor fired and arrest the "victim". You cant issue false claims against people.

Do you guys realize how many people are arrested, actually detained before trial, held for long stretches, and then have the charges dropped against them? Welcome to the real world of a lot of people.

 

Im not saying it is bad-it clearly is. But it annoys me how this prosecutor's office is somehow the only one in the country that has ever done this.

No one can claim that this doesn't happen regularly. However, the behavior of this particular prosecutor was egregious (as was that of everyone involved in persecuting the poor kids) and should be punished. He was clearly out here simply to make a name for himself, and that isn't the behavior an attorney should partake in.

Yay, now we can go back to Lacrosse not mattering!

Do you guys realize how many people are arrested, actually detained before trial, held for long stretches, and then have the charges dropped against them? Welcome to the real world of a lot of people.

 

Im not saying it is bad-it clearly is. But it annoys me how this prosecutor's office is somehow the only one in the country that has ever done this.

No one can claim that this doesn't happen regularly. However, the behavior of this particular prosecutor was egregious (as was that of everyone involved in persecuting the poor kids) and should be punished. He was clearly out here simply to make a name for himself, and that isn't the behavior an attorney should partake in.

 

Agreed, but Im moreso annoyed with the players talking about how the system needs to be reformed and what not. Our society has a lock em up and throw away the key mentality that feeds into creating these situations. Id like to see change, but reverse the parties in a similiar high profile case, and people will demand a justice whether through a trial or not.

Yes, it's the media coverage of this case that makes it somewhat different.

 

I foresee multiple civil suits heading Nifong's way...

Sue the school? For what, doing what any other school would have done?

There's no way you can get anywhere by suing Duke. They didn't do anything.

There's no way you can get anywhere by suing Duke. They didn't do anything.

First rule of lawsuits.....sue ALL POTENTIAL defendants and go from there. They have to include Duke in the suit. Duke may settle and decide it's not worth the time or the negative publicity, definitely worth a shot.

Sue the school? For what, doing what any other school would have done?

I'm not so sure. Their handling of it was an absolute joke.

 

Their cancellation of the entire season because of what three players did, the president basically saying they were guilty, the unfair firing of the coach. Duke totally dropped the ball with this. I've thought that the whole time.

Sue the school? For what, doing what any other school would have done?

I'm not so sure. Their handling of it was an absolute joke.

 

Their cancellation of the entire season because of what three players did, the president basically saying they were guilty, the unfair firing of the coach. Duke totally dropped the ball with this. I've thought that the whole time.

 

Most of Duke's actions could be justified by the fact that they had strippers and alcohol at a party that wasn't exactly a quiet get together.

Sue the school? For what, doing what any other school would have done?

I'm not so sure. Their handling of it was an absolute joke.

 

Their cancellation of the entire season because of what three players did, the president basically saying they were guilty, the unfair firing of the coach. Duke totally dropped the ball with this. I've thought that the whole time.

 

Most of Duke's actions could be justified by the fact that they had strippers and alcohol at a party that wasn't exactly a quiet get together.

 

Yet, none have been mentioned as being drunk, and they were all over 18, making the stripper legal. If it is off campus, Duke has no say in that matter.

Hiring the stripper may have been legal, but it was conduct unbecoming of a student-athlete.

 

Sue the school? For what, doing what any other school would have done?

I'm not so sure. Their handling of it was an absolute joke.

 

Their cancellation of the entire season because of what three players did, the president basically saying they were guilty, the unfair firing of the coach. Duke totally dropped the ball with this. I've thought that the whole time.

 

1. The coach lost control of the team, a la Huggins. 1/3 of the team had some sort of legal proceeding against them (and I'm not talking about parking tickets or traffic citations).

2. Continuing the season would have constituted a threat to safety, due to the inevitable protests and fights that would break out.

3. All Brodhead said was, "what they did was bad enough." And I agree. Hosting an off-campus party in the midst of the lacrosse season, even without the stripper, would have probably drawn a police call from a neighbor to break up the party. They don't want to see the public drunkenness that naturally accompanies the party and blights their neighborhood in the process. Hiring a stripper is also conduct unbecoming of a student-athlete. Compound that mistake with the stripper being drunk off her feet and being a money-grubber, and you have a bad brew that led to the situation you just saw.

Broadhead gave the players no chance, no presumption of innocence and he gave Coach Pressler absolutely no way to defend himself or to even give him a meeting.

Broadhead crumbled to the 88 falculty members who totally and baselessly trashed Pressler and the athletic department as a whole.

 

He had no backbone.

Just because you said it Fox doesn't mean it's true.

Huh? What did I say that was false?

For starters, "no presumption of innocence." Brodhead consistently said that the players should be presumed innocent unless evidence proves otherwise, even as he decried the things that were "bad enough" to lead to the situation.

 

Second, Pressler lost control of the team. He has no one to blame but himself.

 

Third, Brodhead saying anything about the letter (and I'm still not sure what all the fuss is about that, even after reading and re-reading) would constitute an academic-freedom crisis. And even those who did make the bad rushes constituted a minority of the signatories, because of course 8 people spouting their own mouths make the decisions for the other 80.

 

Fox, you didn't go to Duke, I did. You don't know the intricacies of campus politics, I do. Don't bother talking about stuff you don't know anything about.

My parents are Iron Duke members and good friends with two people on the Duke Athletic Advisory Board. To say I know nothing of the situation and/or of your so called intricacies of campus politics when you weren't a student at the time this all happened is a bunch of bull(Durham?). So instead of having a discussion; sure, be an ass especially when you know nothing about me or my situation.