Three lacrosse players at an elite university accused of beating and gang-raping a woman were cleared of all charges on Wednesday, after a 13-month saga which had transfixed the United States. ”We believe these cases were the result of a tragic rush to accuse,” North Carolina’s attorney general, Roy Cooper, told a press conference.
He went on to deliver a scathing indictment of the district attorney who had spearheaded prosecution of the three students, saying a 12-week investigation by his office had shown there was insufficient evidence to proceed. ”We believe these individuals are innocent.”
His endorsement arrives 13 months after the three players, all formerly students at the prestigious Duke University, were charged in a case which seemed to encapsulate many dividing lines in the US: race, sex, class, and sport.
Cooper said that David Evans (24) Reade Seligman (21) and Collin Finnerty (20) had been victims of what he described as a ”rogue prosecutor” who had ignored numerous inconsistencies in the accuser’s story, and a failure to find DNA evidence or witnesses to support her account.
He was withering over the conduct of the district attorney, Michael Nifong, who now faces charges of ethics violations.
”There were many points in this case when caution would have served justice better than bravado,” Cooper said. ”In the rush to condemn, a community and a state lost the ability to see clearly.”
The woman, one of two strippers hired to perform at a raucous party on March 13 last year, had accused the three students of locking her in a bathroom before beating, raping, and sodomising her.
The story, pitting white students at an elite institution against a single mother and part-time student, had struck a chord in Raleigh-Durham. There has been friction between the town and students at an institution where tuition fees exceed $40 000 a year.
But, as it emerged on Wednesday, the woman’s story was simply untrue. ”It’s been 395 days since the nightmare began,” Evans told a press conference on Wednesday, likening the past year of his life to being in an elevator plunging to the bottom of the shaft. ”We were just as innocent as we were back then. Facts don’t change.”
It was unclear what would happen to the accuser, who gave birth to a baby last January. Cooper did not officially release her name.
As it became clear on Wednesday, the accuser’s story had been swift to unravel. Her accounts to hospital staff and police on the night were confused, and, it later transpired, they were not supported by DNA evidence. However, Nifong was not guided by that evidence. Critics soon accused him of pandering to black voters ahead of an election.
In turn, the district attorney lambasted members of the hard-drinking team as ”hooligans”, and accused players of refusing to cooperate with the investigation.
He insisted repeatedly that DNA evidence would support the charges. But the DNA evidence to conclusively tie the three men to the assault never materialised — a fact that Nifong failed to include in his report. Nifong also departed from procedure in conducting a police lineup consisting only of members of the team.
Meanwhile, the lives of the three players were in limbo. By the time they were indicted on charges of rape, kidnapping, and sexual assault in April last year, Evans had already graduated, but Seligman and Finnerty were immediately suspended. Although they were later invited to return to college and the team, they have yet to return to campus.
The families of the three men engaged high-powered attorneys, and waged a counter-attack in the media, skilfully picking apart the woman’s story. But the experience left scars, all three said on Wednesday.
Last December, testing at a private lab found DNA from a number of other men — known among the lacrosse players — on the raped victim’s underwear and body. She then admitted she could no longer be sure penetration had occurred.
A few days later, Nifong dropped the most serious charge, that of rape, against the three players. He later removed himself from the case.
Nifong is embroiled in his own legal troubles. Following an investigation by the North Carolina state bar, he was charged in December with withholding evidence from the three players’ defence team, and of lying to bar investigators.
He goes on trial in June. – Guardian Unlimited Â