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New Defense Motion Ping....

Duke lacrosse players lawyers ask prosecutors for more evidence

The Associated Press

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DURHAM, N.C. -- Lawyers for one of three Duke University men's lacrosse players charged with rape say in a motion filed Thursday that they want the accuser's descriptions to police of the men she says attacked her.

"At some point in their interviews and investigations, one or more of these officers asked (the accuser) to describe the men who she claims sexually assaulted her, and (she) provided some answer to that question," the motion filed by lawyers Bill Cotter and Wade Smith said. Her "response to that question is critical to the defense of the case and the state may not withhold that evidence from the defendant."

Cotter and Smith represent Collin Finnerty, 19, of Garden City, N.Y., who is charged along with Dave Evans, 23, of Bethesda, Md., and Reade Seligmann, 20, of Essex Fells, N.J., with raping a woman hired to perform as a stripper at a March 13 team party.

District Attorney Mike Nifong gave defense lawyers nearly 1,300 pages of evidence last week, saying it was his complete case file.

Smith and Cotter argue in their motion filed in Durham Superior Court that can't be true. They say that there's only one instance in the evidence they've been given when the accuser is asked to describe her attackers.

The response is contained in what appears to be an investigator's note, they said.

"I asked her questions trying to follow up on a better description of the suspects, she was unable to remember anything further about the suspects," the note from Durham police investigator B.W. Himan says, according to the motion.