DURHAM -- District Attorney Mike Nifong was adamant Tuesday as he told members of the community -- and a national TV audience that tuned in -- that he still thought a Durham woman was sexually assaulted at a Duke University lacrosse team party.

The day after defense lawyers announced that DNA test results failed to link any players to the woman, who was hired to dance, Nifong talked about some evidence that he said investigators have collected in the case.

At a forum at N.C. Central University on violence against women, Nifong told more than 400 people that the woman who reported being raped, sodomized and choked by three men at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd. identified at least one of her attackers a week ago.

But attorneys for players said they put little stock in an identification made nearly three weeks after the attack was reported.

No charges have been filed. The grand jury meets next week, and Nifong could take his case to it. The grand jury is made up of citizens who review evidence submitted by prosecutors and decide whether to move forward with criminal charges.

"In this case, I would expect a jury gets to evaluate the evidence," Nifong said at the forum.

Nifong also said he awaited further DNA results, without elaborating on the kind of test ordered or who was doing the testing.

Noelle Talley, a spokeswoman for the N.C. Department of Justice, said the State Bureau of Investigation lab was not doing any more testing in the Duke lacrosse case.

"All the results we had were delivered yesterday," Talley said.

Nifong said he was not daunted by the DNA results reported Monday. He said 75 to 80 percent of sexual assault cases produce no DNA evidence.

"DNA results can often be helpful, but, you know, I've been doing this for a long time, and for most of the years I've been doing this, we didn't have DNA," Nifong added. "We had to deal with sexual assault cases the good old-fashioned way. Witnesses got on the stand and told what happened to them."

Durham lawyer Bill Thomas, who represents one of the lacrosse team captains, said he was skeptical after hearing that Nifong said the accuser had identified an attacker several weeks after the party.

"I would find it astounding that now ... is the first time she can ID one of these men," he said.

"And of course this is after pictures of them have been plastered on national TV for the last two weeks," he added.

On March 14, the accuser told police that she and another woman were sent the previous evening by escort services to dance at a party. She said that just after the women began performing, the men became aggressive and threatening; that the women left the house and became separated; and that she went back into the house, was pulled into a bathroom and was assaulted by three men.

The defense lawyers have said photographs taken at the party show that the woman may not be the best source of information about what happened that night.

"There is no question that this lady was impaired," Thomas said. "I don't think the case will get far enough to ask whether or not she can identify."

Defense lawyers have maintained that no sexual assault occurred -- in fact, no sex at all.

Thomas said the photographs show that after the assault was supposed to have happened, the woman was standing outside the house, knocking on the door trying to get back in. The photographs show that she was counting money, Thomas said.

"I think the questions she is going to have to answer with respect to the photographic evidence is going to be a real hurdle for any case," Thomas said.

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