DA: Previous rape claim will not impact Duke case

The woman who says she was raped by three Duke lacrosse players had a previous case

DURHAM -- District Attorney Mike Nifong said today that a previous rape reported by the woman who accused three men of sexually assaulting her at a Duke University lacrosse team party will have little bearing on his case.

Nifong said in a prepared statement that the decade-old allegation -- which the woman's father said was false -- likely would never arise in court thanks to the state's rape shield law, which generally keeps a woman's sexual history out of open court. A judge could decide that the previous case is relevant and set conditions for its airing, Nifong said.

"The media, of course, are not governed by the same rules that govern our courts," he said.

Creedmoor Police Chief Ted Pollard said Thursday that a woman matching the full name and birth date of the accuser in the Durham case filed a report with his department Aug. 18, 1996, saying she was raped by three men three years earlier, when she was 14.

Pollard said that the archived records from that time are sketchy but that it appears none of the three men named in the 1996 complaint was arrested.

On Friday morning, Pollard held a news conference and said the case was never pursued but files do not say why. He said he surmised that was because the accuser backed out.

"Once the victim decides not to pursue the case three years later, there is no case without the victim," he said. "The victim is the witness."

The woman's father said Thursday his daughter was not raped in the 1996 incident.

"They didn't do anything to her," he said.

The father said his daughter was held against her will by a group of men who had picked her up from school in Durham and drove her to Creedmoor. She was not sexually assaulted or injured in the encounter, he said, and she was returned home safely the same day.

The 1996 accusation came to light Thursday after Essence.com, the Web site of Essence, a lifestyle magazine, reported in a news update that the accuser's mother had said her daughter was raped by several men in Creedmoor when she was a teenager. When contacted by The News & Observer on Thursday, the mother said the magazine misrepresented her comments. She refused to elaborate on what her daughter had reported to the Creedmoor police.

"I'm not going to tell you anything," the mother said.

It is the policy of The N&O to not disclose the names of people who report they were sexually assaulted or their family members.

Authorities arrested two Duke lacrosse players on felony charges of rape and kidnapping April 18. Collin Finnerty, 19, and Reade Seligmann, 20, were each released on $400,000 cash bail.

District Attorney Mike Nifong said last week he intended to build a case against a third man identified by the accuser in a photo lineup who she was "90 percent sure" was one of her attackers. He has been adamant that he believes a sexual assault occurred and that a physical exam performed at Duke Hospital is consistent with her story.

Nifong had no comment Thursday night about the accuser's prior rape report.

Defense lawyers said the revelation bolsters the lacrosse players' contention that nothing happened at the March 13 team party where the accuser and another woman were hired through an escort service to dance.

"This is just jaw-dropping," said Pete Anderson, a Charlotte lawyer representing a team member who has not been charged.

Joseph B. Cheshire V, a Raleigh lawyer who represents a team captain who lived in the Buchanan Boulevard house where the rape is alleged to have occurred, called on Nifong to end a runaway prosecution.

"It certainly raises substantial questions about this woman's credibility," Cheshire said. "It's awfully bothersome when both allegations of rape include three men. It gives one a lot of pause about her credibility. ... This is a train off the track."