Third Duke player indicted

David F. Evans speaks about rape charges against members of Duke's lacrosse team

DURHAM -- A grand jury indicted a Duke University lacrosse team captain Monday, and the player, standing with his parents and teammates, said he is innocent.

David Forker Evans, 23, of Bethesda, Md., was charged with first-degree forcible rape, first-degree sexual offense and first-degree kidnapping. He is the third team member accused of raping an escort service dancer during a party March 13 at a house Evans shared with two other captains.

Teammates Collin Finnerty, 19, of Garden City, N.Y., and Reade Seligmann, 20, of Essex Fells, N.J., were indicted last month on the same charges.

Evans arrived Monday afternoon at the county jail with his parents, lawyers and the senior members of the lacrosse team. He was the first member of the team to speak publicly since news of the case broke in March, and he told reporters that no member of the team raped the woman.

"I am absolutely innocent of all the charges that have been brought against me today. ... Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty are innocent of all the charges that were brought against them," Evans said. "These allegations are lies, fabrications, fabrications, and they will be proven wrong."

One of Evans' attorneys, Joseph B. Cheshire V of Raleigh, said District Attorney Mike Nifong repeatedly has refused to meet with defense lawyers to discuss evidence that they think would prove the rape did not occur. As he did last week, Cheshire referred to the woman in the case as a "false accuser."

"This is one of the saddest days for justice in the state of North Carolina," Cheshire said at the news conference.

Nifong said in a statement that there will be no more charges in the case.

"At the outset of this investigation, I said that it was just as important to remove the cloud of suspicion from the members of the Duke University lacrosse team who were not involved in this assault as it was to identify the actual perpetrators," Nifong wrote. "For that reason, I believe it is important to state publicly today that none of the evidence that we have developed implicates any member of that team other than those three against whom indictments have been returned."

After the news conference, Evans entered the Durham jail and chatted casually with another of his attorneys, Brad Bannon, and the Durham police investigators in the case, Mark Gottlieb and Benjamin Himan. About 30 minutes later, Evans appeared before Durham County Magistrate Eric Van Vleet.

"Do you understand the charges brought against you?" Van Vleet asked.

"Yes, sir," Evans said.

As he sorted out the paperwork, the magistrate made small talk. Evans responded in one- or two-word answers.

When it came time to post bail, Evans slid a certified check for $400,000 through a slot on the side of the window, drafted at a local branch of SunTrust bank.

"You understand you should have no contact with her or her family," Van Vleet told him, referring to the accuser. He slid a receipt for the check through the window.

"You're free to go," he said.

Nifong has not discussed the specifics of the case in weeks. But Cheshire said Evans was indicted on slim evidence. The woman told investigators that she was 90 percent sure in her identification of Evans and only had doubt because the man who attacked her had a moustache that night, according to Cheshire and a transcript of the lineup procedure filed in court.

"Mr. Nifong knows that David Evans has never had a moustache," Cheshire said.

Defense lawyers have criticized the police lineup procedure as suggestive and unfair. It violated the department's general orders that call for an independent investigator to run lineups and to include photographs of people who are not suspects in the case. The investigators showed the woman only photographs of lacrosse team members.