Charges dropped in rape case that divided US

Prosecutors in Raleigh, North Carolina today dropped all charges against the three Duke University lacrosse players accused of sexually assaulting a stripper at a party.

They said the athletes were innocent victims of a “tragic rush to accuse” by an overreaching district attorney.

“There were many points in the case where caution would have served justice better than bravado,” North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper said in a blistering assessment of Durham County District Mike Nifong’s handling of the case.

Cooper, who took over the case after Nifong was charged with ethics violations that could get him disbarred, said his own investigation concluded not only that the evidence against the young men was insufficient, but that no attack took place.

The case sparked furious debate in the US over race, class and the privileged status of college athletes, and it heightened long-standing local tensions between a large working-class black population and the mostly white, mostly affluent students at the private, elite university.

“I think a lot of people owe a lot of apologies to a lot of people,” Cooper said. “I think those people ought to consider doing that.”

At a congratulatory, I-told-you-so news conference with the three young men and their families, one of their lawyers, Joe Cheshire, bitterly accused the media of portraying the athletes as criminals, and said: “We’re angry, very angry. But we’re very relieved.”

“It’s been 395 days since this nightmare began. And finally today it’s coming to a closure,” said one of the 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.”

Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty and Evans were indicted last spring on charges of rape, kidnapping and sexual offence after the 28-year-old black student at nearby North Carolina Central University told police she was raped and beaten by three white Duke students at a party where she had been hired to perform.

However, the attorney general said the eyewitness identification procedures were unreliable, no DNA supported the woman’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,” Cooper said.

Cooper said no charges would be brought against the accuser, saying she “may actually believe” the many different versions of the stories she has told. “We believe it is in the best interest of justice not to bring charges,” he said.

Nifong came under furious criticism for pressing ahead with a case many said seemed pitifully weak.

The case came down to the woman’s word against the athletes, and her story kept changing.

In December, Nifong dropped the rape charges.

Duke suspended Seligmann (aged 21), and Finnerty (aged 20), after their arrest. Both were invited to return to campus this year, but neither accepted. Evans (aged 24), graduated the day before he was indicted.

The team resumed play this year.