DNA doesn’t connect Duke athletes
DURHAM, N.C. – 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 Monday.
Citing DNA test results delivered by the state crime lab to police and prosecutors a few hours earlier, the attorneys said the results prove their clients did not sexually assault and beat a stripper hired to perform at a team party on March 13.
No charges have been filed in the case.
“There is no DNA evidence that shows she was touched by any of these boys,” said attorney Joe Cheshire, who represents one of the team’s captains.
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. She told police three men at the party dragged her into a bathroom, choked her, raped and sodomized her.
The Associated Press does not name alleged victims in sexual assault cases.
The allegations have led to the resignation of coach Mike Pressler, the cancellation of the lacrosse season and the suspension of one player from school.
The case also led to days of protests on and off the Duke campus, and some of the players have moved for safety reasons.
According to court documents, only lacrosse team members were at the party. Authorities ordered 46 of the 47 players on Duke’s lacrosse team to submit DNA samples to investigators, who compared them with evidence collected from the woman. Because the woman said her attackers were white, the team’s sole black player was not tested. It was not known whether investigators tested for DNA other than the players’.
Cheshire 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 cell phone and clothes.
“They swabbed about every place they could possibly swab from her, in which there could be any DNA,” he said.
District attorney Mike Nifong has said he would have other evidence to make his case should the DNA prove inconclusive or fail to match a member of the team.
“I believe a sexual assault took place,” Nifong told the News & Observer of Raleigh on Monday. “I’m not saying it’s over. If that’s what they expect, they will be sadly disappointed.”
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.