Any lacrosse charges 10 days away

DNA Tests: Prosecutors do not intend to release DNA test results.

District Attorney Mike Nifong said Friday that no charges will be filed in the investigation of a report of rape at a Duke University lacrosse party until at least the week of April 10. He also said he won't release DNA results that had been expected next week.

The tests, which are comparing the DNA of 46 lacrosse players with samples taken from the accuser as well as from towels, rags and rugs in the house where the party was held, could be completed next week, Nifong said.

But Nifong said he had no plans to announce the state's evidence before a trial.

"That's just not how we do business, and I would not anticipate that we would treat this case any differently," Nifong said in an interview.

If charges are filed, the test results would have to be given to defense lawyers and presumably would be introduced at trial.

Prominent Raleigh lawyer Joseph B. Cheshire V, who represents one of the team captains, said it isn't fair for Nifong to publicly talk about the case and whether the players were involved, and then not reveal the test results. The captains' attorneys have said they expect the team to be cleared by DNA.

"He'll say whatever he wants to say in public, but he won't say in public what the evidence is," Cheshire said. "Historically, the standard has been in Durham that prosecutors don't go out and call people guilty before they get all the evidence against them."

Nifong said Friday that he will be out of town three days next week for a district attorneys conference. If charges are filed, he said, he probably would announce them at a news conference -- and the soonest he would do that is the week of April 10.

The case has rocked the university and city and stirred tensions over race and class. The accuser is black and a student at N.C. Central University, and she said she was raped by three white men.

It is The News and Observer's policy not to identify people who tell police they have been sexually assaulted.

Nifong said Friday that he is confident in the woman's story.

"I am satisfied that she was sexually assaulted at this residence," he said.

On March 13, two women were hired to dance at the team party, each from a different escort service, according to Durham police spokeswoman Kammie Michael. Police will not say which service the accuser worked for, but she said the other woman worked for a company called Allure.

Just before 1 a.m. that night, someone called 911 and complained that people outside the house, which had been leased by three lacrosse players, had shouted racial slurs. The rape was reported about 30 minutes later.

One of the players' attorneys, James "Butch" Williams of Durham, has said the first call was suspicious and might have been part of a setup.

Nifong dismissed that theory, saying a hoax would have to include faking injuries to the woman's body. A doctor and nurse determined after the incident that she had signs and symptoms consistent with her story.

"If this is all a hoax that was ... designed to get the lacrosse team ... what other major lacrosse program is behind that hoax? The presumed motivation would be to end the season of the Duke lacrosse team, and that's obviously been accomplished," Nifong said. "Seriously, when you think about it, who would be motivated to do a hoax like that? What possible reason would somebody have to do that?"

Police do not know who placed the first 911 call about the racial slur, although Michael said it was not the accuser. After the attack was said to have occurred, the second dancer drove the accuser to a grocery store, where a security guard called 911. Police responded, and the woman reported a rape.

Two days later, officers searched the home. Police have said they used those two days to interview the victim, witnesses and residents of the house to build probable cause for a search warrant. Nifong would not comment on why the delay happened, but he said that because of it, investigators could have missed some evidence.

For instance, if condoms were used, Nifong said, those would have been gone before the search.

"Obviously, any delay would give an opportunity for somebody to clean up if they were inclined to do so, or felt there was something they didn't want left behind," Nifong said.

(Staff writers Anne Blythe and Samiha Khanna contributed to this report.)