State refuses request in Duke lacrosse case

Prosecutor wanted key card information

DURHAM -- A judge stopped District Attorney Mike Nifong's quest to get key card records for unindicted Duke University lacrosse players and decided Friday that the prosecutor was only entitled to the players' home addresses.

Nifong said in court this week that every member of the team who attended a March party that ended with allegations of rape was a potential witness and that the key card records could help corroborate whatever testimony the unindicted players give. Attorneys for the team members convinced the judge that Nifong had not shown a good reason to reveal federally protected school records of students who are not accused of a crime.

Also Friday, attorneys for the three indicted lacrosse players asked the judge to allow members of the lacrosse team to speak to the media, especially about their assertion that no rape occurred at the March 13 party. The motion was in response to an order from Superior Court Judge Kenneth C. Titus earlier this week that required not only the lawyers and prosecutor but also witnesses in the case to follow a State Bar rule limiting what can be said to the news media about the case.

The filings Friday seemed to end what had been a relatively quiet time in the lacrosse case, which continued to draw a national audience. A woman hired through an escort service to perform at the party told authorities that three men raped her. Members of the team who attended the party have said no rape or assault happened.

Three players, Dave Evans, 23, of Bethesda, Md.; Collin Finnerty, 19, of Garden City, N.Y.; and Reade Seligmann, 20, of Essex Fells, N.J., were indicted and charged with rape, kidnapping and sex offense. After the indictments, Nifong issued a statement saying that no evidence implicated any other member of the team.

But the prosecutor wanted the university to hand over key card records for those unindicted players, possibly to try to track their movements after the party ended.

Titus ruled that Nifong had not shown a good reason to obtain those records from the university.

Defense lawyer Bill Thomas said the key card records are just as protected by federal privacy laws as grades and other academic records.

"The state had no business foraging through the the educational records of these innocent young men," said Thomas, who represents one of the unindicted team captains.

"He's asking for my client's confidential records. I don't know what his motive is or what he's trying to do," said Tommy Manning, who represents one of the players.

Nifong was out of town and could not be reached Friday.

Titus did allow Nifong's subpoena seeking home addresses for the players. That information, Thomas said, was already given to the police when 46 of the team's players submitted to court ordered DNA testing.

Nifong and many of the lawyers involved in the case have carried on running feuds since news of the case broke. The tension was clear in the 17-page motion seeking to allow the lacrosse players to talk about the case. Early on, Nifong gave numerous interviews about the investigation defense lawyers have said in news conferences and the motion includes numerous examples. The lawyers wrote that Nifong gave a false impression of his evidence and the events of that night in March.

"And because the narrative is wrong, undersigned counsel are not only permitted, but ethically obligated to defend Dave Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann against it," the lawyers wrote.

Also Friday, attorneys for one of the indicted players renewed their request to speed up the case.

Kirk Osborn and Ernest Connor, attorneys for Seligmann, wrote that the charges have taken a year of Seligmann's college life away from him.

If the case doesn't move forward faster, Seligmann could lose another year, the lawyers wrote.

At a court appearance Monday, Titus denied Osborn's request to speed up the case or set deadlines for the prosecution.

The lawyers accused Nifong of delaying his case and requested that "the court order the District Attorney to stop stalling and expeditiously provide full discovery to the defense."

Lawyers in the rape case are scheduled to return to court the week of Aug. 21.

(Staff writer Anne Blythe contributed to this report.)