Glen Bachman said he did not know why McFadyen was suspended but believed it had to do with the player's safety.

He said he did not know of any specific disciplinary action the school had taken.

"I think it was a safety concern for him and the university," Bachman said in an interview.

He would not comment on the e-mail message.

The text of the e-mail was included in a search warrant application released today. Investigators used the warrant to search the dorm room and apartment of team member Ryan McFadyen, a sophomore defenseman from Mendham, N.J.

According to the warrant, a confidential source sent investigators a copy of the e-mail, which they believe originated from McFadyen's Duke University e-mail address.

It was sent at 1:58 a.m. on March 14, about a half hour after the woman, an employee of an escort service, told police she had been raped at the party where she had been hired to perform.

"Tomorrow night, after tonights show, ive decided to have some strippers over," the message read. "However there will be no nudity. i plan on killing bitches as soon as the walk in and proceeding to cut their skin off."

The message goes on to read that he would find the act sexually gratifying.

Joe Cheshire, a lawyer representing one of the team captains, said the e-mail helps support the team's story. Team members told police, according to Cheshire, that they hired women to dance and those women left the party early.

"This e-mail, while the wording of it is, at best, unfortunate, if you read this e-mail and you also are aware of other e-mails that exist contemporaneous with these events, it's quite clear that no rape happened in that house," Cheshire said. "These boys were frustrated because they, as is already been reported, they thought these women had come and taken a bunch of money and started dancing and just decided to leave."

Investigators used the warrant to search McFadyen's dorm room and car. Investigators seized posters, cash, computers, memory cards and a hard drive, papers and drawings and a disposable camera.

The reported rape has heightened weeks of tensions on and off campus. Attorneys for the players deny that any rape, assault or even sex occurred at the party, held at a North Buchanan Boulevard rental house shared by three of the team's captains. No charges have been filed.

Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong has said he is confident in the woman's story and a judge ordered all but one member of the team to submit to DNA tests. Those results are due back either this week or the next. Nifong said if charges are filed, it would likely be next week at the earliest.

Cheshire and other defense lawyers involved in the case have been critical of Nifong's public statements. He said the unsealing of the warrant today shows desperation on the part of investigators.

"If you see this case with things the police have not released, you see this case in a different light than the prosecutor going out there and saying, ‘they're guilty,'" Cheshire said. "Is it a horrible e-mail? Yes. Does it make the writer look good as a human being? Are there all kinds of moral and social issues that can be discussed about what went on that night? This e-mail does not in any way shape or form show that there was a violent sexual act that went on in that house. I would tell you that it in fact shows the opposite."