Posted on 04/11/2007 7:46:54 AM PDT by Howlin
RALEIGH, N.C. — Three members of Duke University's lacrosse team could learn Wednesday whether state prosecutors will drop the remaining charges accusing them of sexually assaulting a stripper at a team party more than a year ago.
"I think it's likely that they will do that," said Wade Smith, an attorney for charged player Collin Finnerty. "We certainly hope that would be true. But until we hear it, we're not going to acknowledge that's the truth. We'll wait and see."
The state Attorney General's Office has scheduled a 2:30 p.m. news conference to discuss the case. It is unclear whether Attorney General Roy Cooper will be at the news conference at the RBC Center, which can accommodate the crush of national media interested in the case.
The Associated Press, citing sources close to the investigation, reported Wednesday morning that all charges would be dropped in the case.
The Attorney General's Office took over the case in January after Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong was charged with several ethics violations tied to his handling of the sensational case.
No notice of dismissal had been filed at the Durham County Courthouse by early Wednesday. But a spokeswoman for the Attorney General's Office told WRAL that the investigation into the case has been completed.
"We are relieved that this day has come,” Smith told WRAL. “There will not be a celebration because this has been a train wreck.”
The families of Collin Finnerty, Reade Seligmann and David Evans arrived in Raleigh Tuesday. Officials told WRAL that the three lacrosse players would be present once a decision had been made as to how the prosecution would proceed with the case.
A grand jury indicted the three players on charges of rape, kidnapping and sexual offense last spring after a woman told police she was assaulted at a March 2006 team party where she was hired to perform as a stripper. All three have steadfastly maintained their innocence, with Evans calling the allegations "fantastic lies."
Nifong dropped the rape charges in December after the accuser changed a key detail in her story. He recused himself a few weeks later after the state bar charged him with violating several rules of professional conduct.
Among the ethics charges, Nifong is accused of withholding potentially exculpatory DNA evidence from the defense and lying to both the court and bar investigators. Nifong faces a June trial before the bar and could be disbarred if convicted.
Nifong faces a Friday afternoon hearing in the ethics case, and he spent Wednesday morning with his attorney in Winston-Salem.
Nifong's recusal put the players' fate in the hands of Cooper, who promised "a fresh and thorough review of the facts" when he took over the case in January.
Smith said the players, their families and the defense attorneys were pleased that the special prosecutors took over the case, saying they brought "sanity to this situation."
“The special prosecutors have looked under every rock, and they have searched for evidence in places even the defense did not,” he told WRAL.
While Evans graduated the day before he was indicted in May, Duke temporarily suspended sophomores Finnerty and Seligmann in the wake of their arrest. Finnerty 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
LOL. Of all those I could be in timeout with, Imus would not be my first choice.
I want to see Duke end it's hate mongering, multi-cultural program and fire all 88 professors. Duke investigated its culture of athleticism, instead of the hate mongering by its multi-culturists.
We might just need the NAME of the 88 liberal Professors!
Addresses would be a plus.
abb might have them saved somewhere. I saw them on several threads.
Wonder if there are pending lawsuits on the horizon??? And that's the reason for this amazing presser or could it be he's just an honest man?
maggif will have it somewhere. she’s got a complete archive on this thing from day one. she’s got it all indexed, apparently.
mucho gracias... think I will send out emails... and pass on to my list of conservative family and friends. :)
Please be respectful even though they don’t deserve it.
Nappy Nancy....(stretching the limits)
I wonder if some of these tv lawyers were the ones...few as they might have been...to actually back Fog and the accuser all the way.....
it doesn't seem right that Fog gets away with this......
They sound just like Kim’s “they brush it off” remark.
Hmm. You are right: Maybe Oprah WILL have her on the show. We can count on Montel and some of the others, I'll bet.
Pdf’s of dismissal orders.
http://www.johnlocke.org/site-docs/seligmann-dismissal.pdf
http://www.johnlocke.org/site-docs/finnerty-dismissal.pdf
http://www.johnlocke.org/site-docs/evans-dismissal.pdf
Public has been dragged all over the tarnation with the lies from CGM and Nifong, and now they get to have the truth delivered in "media" pre-digested fashion.
This is an outrage.
No.
Should have said "these three men have been found innocent due to lack of credible evidence".
"We believe"?
muttering...
I love it. The dismalls all state the defendant is INNOCENT!
dismalls=dismissals
Sweet.
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