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Attorneys: Duke team DNA results negative

BY JOHN MORENO GONZALES | Newsday Staff Correspondent

April 11, 2006

DURHAM, N.C. - Calling for an end to the investigation of the Duke lacrosse team, lawyers representing all 46 players said that DNA results released yesterday showed no evidence of sexual intercourse between their clients and the young woman who has accused three of them of rape.

Attorneys representing the embattled squad that includes 14 players from Long Island held a news conference here just 10 minutes after receiving the much-anticipated results. Though Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong has consistently said his case is not built on DNA evidence, the defense lawyers claimed complete exoneration of their clients.

"This report shows they are innocent," said Raleigh lawyer Joseph Cheshire at the 5:45 p.m. news conference held outside the county courthouse.

Raleigh attorney Wade Smith said: "No DNA material from any young man tested was present on the body of this complaining woman. Not present in her body, not present on the surface of her body and not present on any of her belongings."

Nifong's office did not return calls for comment yesterday, but the district attorney has said condoms could have been used in the alleged sexual assault at a March 13 house party where the accuser and another woman were hired to perform as exotic dancers.

In an interview late yesterday with The News & Observer of Raleigh, Nifong said he would continue to build his case.

According to court records, the woman told police she was threatened with a broomstick, beaten and sexually assaulted for 30 minutes by three players, while others did not intervene.

Nifong said medical exams performed on the woman showed injuries consistent with rape and emotional trauma, convincing him that an assault took place. But for more than a week he has offered no indication if he will press charges, even as more than a dozen attorneys now representing various members of the team chip away at the allegation of the woman, a student at nearby North Carolina Central University.

Duke University officials reacted to the DNA announcement yesterday without judgment. "We have to have confidence that the police investigation will ultimately reveal the truth," said John F. Burness, a senior university spokesman.

Last week, Duke President Richard Brodhead canceled the lacrosse season, accepted Coach Mike Pressler's resignation and suspended one player for sending what he called a "sickening and repulsive" e-mail less than an hour after the incident. The e-mail referred to hiring strippers for a follow-up party, and skinning and murdering them for sexual gratification.

Still, the defense lawyers stepped before dozens of news cameras yesterday and said the DNA results were enough to end the investigation that has caused the community to examine difficult questions of race, gender and privilege.

The accused players are white and mostly from suburbs in the Northeast. The woman and the other dancer are black.