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Charges in Duke lacrosse reportedly to be dismissed
The Duke lacrosse saga may finally be coming to a close.
ABC News reported on Tuesday night that the office of North Carolina attorney general Roy Cooper will announce that he is dismissing all charges against three Duke lacrosse players who faced multiple charges stemming from a sexual assault case.
ABC's sources close to the case did not know the basis for dismissing the charges or when an announcement might come.
The three players, Reade Seligmann, David Evans and Collin Finnerty were facing charges of first degree kidnapping and first degree forcible sexual offense. After the party on the night of March 13, 2006, one of two dancers hired to perform claimed she had been violently raped in a bathroom by members of the lacrosse team.
All three have steadfastly maintained their innocence, with Evans calling the allegations "fantastic lies."
Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong dropped the rape charges in December after the accuser changed a key detail in her story, and recused himself a few weeks later after the state bar charged him with several ethics violations tied to his handling of the case. The North Carolina State Bar is scheduled to hold a hearing on Friday to consider a motion to dismiss the charges against Nifong. If convicted, Nifong could be disbarred.
Nifong's recusal put the players' fate in the hands of North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, who promised "a fresh and thorough review of the facts" when he took over the case in January.
There were signs earlier Tuesday that an announcement from Cooper might come soon. Seligmann, 21, of Essex Fells, N.J., and his family arrived at Raleigh-Durham International Airport, and Smith said the Finnerty family was also expected to arrive later Tuesday from their home in Garden City, N.Y.
"We are not going to have any expectations until we hear officially," Smith said. "When we get the word, we'll have the word."
Evans' attorney, Joseph Cheshire, declined to comment when asked if his client was planning to be in Raleigh on Wednesday.
While Evans, 24, of Bethesda, Md., graduated the day before he was indicted in May, Duke temporarily suspended sophomores Finnerty and Seligmann in the wake of their arrest. Finnerty, 20, was also convicted in July in an unrelated assault case in Washington, D.C., and sentenced to six months of probation.
Finnerty and Seligmann were both invited to return to campus, but neither has accepted. John Danowski, the former coach at Hofstra who took over the Duke program last summer, has also said that both are welcome to continue their lacrosse careers with the Blue Devils.
Finnerty's father said it has been a ''horrific'' year, and said odds were low that his son would return to Duke.
"The waiting process is wearing us down emotionally," Finnerty's father, Kevin Finnerty, in a telephone interview. "We take comfort in the fact that these prosecutors are searching for the truth. And that's different from how we felt before their involvement."
Source: espn.com
ABC News reported on Tuesday night that the office of North Carolina attorney general Roy Cooper will announce that he is dismissing all charges against three Duke lacrosse players who faced multiple charges stemming from a sexual assault case.
ABC's sources close to the case did not know the basis for dismissing the charges or when an announcement might come.
The three players, Reade Seligmann, David Evans and Collin Finnerty were facing charges of first degree kidnapping and first degree forcible sexual offense. After the party on the night of March 13, 2006, one of two dancers hired to perform claimed she had been violently raped in a bathroom by members of the lacrosse team.
All three have steadfastly maintained their innocence, with Evans calling the allegations "fantastic lies."
Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong dropped the rape charges in December after the accuser changed a key detail in her story, and recused himself a few weeks later after the state bar charged him with several ethics violations tied to his handling of the case. The North Carolina State Bar is scheduled to hold a hearing on Friday to consider a motion to dismiss the charges against Nifong. If convicted, Nifong could be disbarred.
Nifong's recusal put the players' fate in the hands of North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, who promised "a fresh and thorough review of the facts" when he took over the case in January.
There were signs earlier Tuesday that an announcement from Cooper might come soon. Seligmann, 21, of Essex Fells, N.J., and his family arrived at Raleigh-Durham International Airport, and Smith said the Finnerty family was also expected to arrive later Tuesday from their home in Garden City, N.Y.
"We are not going to have any expectations until we hear officially," Smith said. "When we get the word, we'll have the word."
Evans' attorney, Joseph Cheshire, declined to comment when asked if his client was planning to be in Raleigh on Wednesday.
While Evans, 24, of Bethesda, Md., graduated the day before he was indicted in May, Duke temporarily suspended sophomores Finnerty and Seligmann in the wake of their arrest. Finnerty, 20, was also convicted in July in an unrelated assault case in Washington, D.C., and sentenced to six months of probation.
Finnerty and Seligmann were both invited to return to campus, but neither has accepted. John Danowski, the former coach at Hofstra who took over the Duke program last summer, has also said that both are welcome to continue their lacrosse careers with the Blue Devils.
Finnerty's father said it has been a ''horrific'' year, and said odds were low that his son would return to Duke.
"The waiting process is wearing us down emotionally," Finnerty's father, Kevin Finnerty, in a telephone interview. "We take comfort in the fact that these prosecutors are searching for the truth. And that's different from how we felt before their involvement."
Source: espn.com