Duke lacrosse-player abuse charges dropped at last

But the false rape accuser gets off free. That's one way Britain is more just. The British system has locked up a couple of such liars recently. But this liar is black so I suppose that gives her special privileges. Such liars should get the same sentence to which they expose the men they accuse

The sex abuse case against three former students of a top US university accused of attacking a black woman at a party finally collapsed today, with North Carolina's top prosecutor saying the three lacrosse players were railroaded by a district attorney who ignored increasingly flimsy evidence in a "tragic rush to accuse". In a blistering assessment of the case, Attorney-General Roy Cooper dropped all charges against the three members of Duke University's lacrosse team at Raleigh Durham , all but ensuring that only one person in the whole scandal will be held to account: Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong.

"This case shows the enormous consequences of overreaching by a prosecutor," Mr Cooper said. Mr Cooper, who took over the case in January after Mr Nifong was charged with ethics violations that could get him disbarred, said his own investigation into a stripper's claim that she was sexually assaulted at a team party found nothing to corroborate her story, and "led us to the conclusion that no attack occurred." "There were many points in the case where caution would have served justice better than bravado," Mr Cooper said. "In the rush to condemn, a community and a state lost the ability to see clearly."

In the US, the case has stirred furious debate over race, class and the privileged status of college athletes, and heightened long-standing tensions in Durham between its large working-class black population and the mostly white, mostly affluent students at the private, elite university. The woman attended nearby North Carolina Central University, a historically black school; all three Duke players are white.

At today's often-bitter, I-told-you-so news conference, the three young men and their lawyers accused the news media and the public of disregarding the presumption of innocence and portraying them as thugs. "It's been 395 days since this nightmare began. And finally today it's coming to a closure," said one of the cleared defendants, David Evans, his voice breaking at one point. "We're just as innocent today as we were back then. Nothing has changed. The facts don't change." Defence attorney Joe Cheshire said: "We're angry, very angry. But we're very relieved."

Mr Nifong was out of town and could not immediately be reached for comment. But his lawyer, David Freedman, said: "If further investigation showed this boys were innocent, he would be in agreement with what the attorney-general's office decided to do."

Evans, Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty were indicted last northern spring on charges of rape, kidnapping and sexual offence after the woman told police she was assaulted in the bathroom at an off-campus house during a team party where she had been hired to perform. The rape charges were dropped months ago; the other charges remained until today. The attorney-general said the eyewitness identification procedures were unreliable, no DNA supported the stripper's story, no other witness corroborated it, and the woman contradicted herself. "Based on the significant inconsistencies between the evidence and the various accounts given by the accusing witness, we believe these three individuals are innocent of these charges," Mr Cooper said.

He said the charges resulted from a "tragic rush to accuse and a failure to verify serious allegations." "I think a lot of people owe a lot of apologies to a lot of people," Mr Cooper said. He offered no explanation for why the stripper told such a story and would not discuss her mental health. However, he said no charges will be brought against her, saying she "may actually believe" the many different stories she told. "We believe it is in the best interest of justice not to bring charges," he said. The accuser's whereabouts were not immediately known. The Associated Press generally does not identify accusers in sex-crime cases.


Portraying Mr Nifong as a "rogue prosecutor," Mr 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. Mr Cooper declined to say whether he believes Mr Nifong should be disbarred, saying it would not be fair to pass judgment before he goes on trial before the state bar in June.

At the news conference with his former teammates, Finnerty said: "Knowing I had the truth on my side was really the most comforting thing at all throughout this last year." Seligmann thanked his lawyers for sparing him from 30 years in prison for a "hoax" and complained that society has lost sight of the presumption of innocence. "This entire experience has opened my eyes up to a tragic world of injustice," he said.

The case was troubled almost from the start. DNA failed to connect any of the athletes to the 28-year-old stripper. One of the athletes claimed to have ATM receipts and time-stamped photos that provided an alibi. It was also learned that the stripper had levelled similar gang-rape allegations a decade ago, and no charges resulted. Then, in December, Mr Nifong dropped the rape charges after the woman said she was no longer certain she was penetrated.

Mr Nifong came under furious criticism from the community, the university and members of the bar for pressing ahead with a case that they said seemed pitifully weak. 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 about the athletes under suspicion. The bar later added more serious charges of withholding evidence from defence attorneys and lying to the court. Among other things, Mr Nifong called the athletes "a bunch of hooligans" and declared DNA evidence would identify the guilty. He was also accused of withholding the 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, and Finnerty, 20, after their arrest. Both were invited to return to campus this year, but neither accepted. Evans, 24, graduated the day before he was indicted. In the uproar over the allegations, Duke cancelled 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 behaviour for too long. The team resumed play this year.

Report here





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