Lawyers: DNA Testing Finds No Match in Duke Lacrosse Case
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DNA testing failed to connect any members of the Duke University lacrosse team to the alleged rape of a stripper, attorneys for the athletes said yesterday.
Citing DNA test results delivered by the state crime lab to police and prosecutors a few hours earlier, the attorneys said the test results prove their clients did not sexually assault and beat a stripper hired to perform at a March 13 team party.
No charges have been filed in the case.
“No DNA material from any young man was present on the body of this complaining woman,” said defense attorney Wade Smith.
The alleged victim, a 27-year-old student at a nearby college, told police she and another woman were hired to dance at the party. The woman told police that three men at the party dragged her into a bathroom, choked her, raped her, and sodomized her.
Authorities ordered 46 of the 47 players on Duke’s lacrosse team to submit DNA samples to investigators. Because the woman said her attackers were white, the team’s sole black player was not tested.
District Attorney Mike Nifong stopped speaking with reporters last week after initially talking openly about the case, including stating publicly that he was confident a crime occurred. He went on to say he would have other evidence to make his case should the DNA analysis prove inconclusive or fail to match a member of the team.
Mr. Smith said Mr. Nifong now has the evidence needed to change his mind.
“He doesn’t have to do it,” Mr. Smith said of filing charges. “He is a man with discretion. He doesn’t have to do it, and we hope that he won’t.”
Attorney Joe Cheshire, who represents one of the team’s captains, said the report indicated authorities took DNA samples from all over the alleged victim’s body, including under her fingernails, and from her possessions, such as her cell phone and her clothes.
“They swabbed about every place they could possibly swab from her, in which there could be any DNA,” he said.
Mr. Cheshire said even if the alleged attackers used a condom, it’s likely there would have been some DNA evidence found suggesting an assault took place. He said in this case, the report states there was no DNA on her to indicate that she had sex of any type recently.
