Finnerty charged with assault in D.C.

Collin Finnerty, one of two Duke University lacrosse players charged in the reported rape of a dancer at a March 13 party, has been arrested before.

Finnerty, a lanky sophomore attackman from Chaminade High School, an all-boys Catholic academy in Mineola, N.Y., was arrested last November on assault charges in Washington, D.C.

On March 23, the same day he was ordered to provide DNA samples in Durham for the gang rape investigation, Finnerty was in Washington to face a misdemeanor charge of simple assault.

According to court records, Finnerty and two former Chaminade teammates attacked a man who was driving by The Georgetown Inn on Wisconsin Avenue in the early hours of Nov. 5, "busting his lip and bruising his chin."

The man said that he told them to stop "calling him gay and ... derogatory names."

Finnerty, who entered a diversion program, was ordered to perform 25 hours of community service in Washington by fall, said his attorney, Stephen J. McCool. If he performs the service and avoids new arrests, the assault charges will be dropped, McCool said.

Finnerty is from Garden City, N.Y., a fairly affluent Long Island bedroom community about 26 miles east of New York City. His father, Kevin J. Finnerty, is a senior official with Bear Stearns, a securities trading, investment banking and brokerage firm with headquarters in New York.

Finnerty graduated from Chaminade in 2004 and made the East roster for the National High School Senior Showcase sponsored by U.S. Lacrosse, the national governing body for the sport.

According to the 2005 Duke University lacrosse team guide, Finnerty was an all-conference player at Chaminade. He scored 48 goals and had 22 assists during his senior year at the Marianist order Catholic school.