Police tried to interview team members

Durham -- Durham police visited Duke lacrosse players on campus, a move that on Friday drew fire from defense lawyers who said investigators tried to grill the players without their attorneys present.

The university confirmed that on Thursday night, two detectives visited Edens Residence Hall, where several lacrosse players live, as part of their criminal investigation into rape allegations stemming from a March 13 team party.

No search warrants were executed, the university said in a statement, and the officers stayed about an hour and 15 minutes.

James “Butch” Williams, who represents one of the team captains, said the players declined to speak without lawyers present.

“Police went over there to try to do some interviews, to try to determine who was at the party and who wasn’t” Williams said. “They didn’t do it right. They didn’t go through the attorneys.”

A woman who worked for an escort service who was hired to dance for the party says she was raped and beaten by three men in a bathroom. Lawyers for the players say no rape, no sex and no assault occurred. They say the woman left after only a few minutes.

Raleigh lawyer Joseph B. Cheshire V, who represents a team captain, said Friday the team has nothing to hide from investigators. “They don't have a case and they're trying to fit a round peg into a square hole,” Cheshire said.

Defense attorneys have said they expect District Attorney Mike Nifong to seek indictments against one or more of the players when a Durham grand jury meets Monday. “It seems awfully interesting that they would be doing something like that two days before,” Cheshire said.

Several defense lawyers met Friday at the office of Bill Thomas, who represents another of the team’s four captains. Those seen leaving would not say what they discussed.

News of the detectives’ campus visit broke after a breakfast meeting at N.C. Central University among Duke President Richard Brodhead, Mayor Bill Bell, NCCU chancellor James Ammons and others. The gathering was meant to foster communication and pacify an city angered after the accuser, who is black, said she was gang raped by white men at the lacrosse team party in a university-owned house.

Bell said at a news conference that the group discussed issues including racial tensions, sexism and the behavior of collegiate athletes. The mayor said such problems are not unique to the Bull City.

“If you go into any town, any state, across this nation, you’ll find the same type of issues, even on college campuses,” Bell said, speaking to a wide bank of television cameras.

“What we’re dealing with is a national issue. It so happens you guys have come in and made it a Durham issue.”

Ammons also criticized what he called the “simplistic” portrait of Durham in the national press. He urged the city to wait for the legal process to play out.

“Justice is served in the courtroom, not in the media or in the hands of individuals,” Ammons said.