News & Observer | newsobserver.com | Defense seeking results of tests

Published: May 23, 2006 12:30 AM
Modified: May 23, 2006 06:08 AM

Defense seeking results of tests

Toxicology factor in lacrosse case

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DURHAM - Lawyers representing an indicted Duke University lacrosse player Monday requested the results of any toxicology tests performed on a woman after she said she was raped at a team party.

Attorneys for Reade William Seligmann, 20, of Essex Fells, N.J., said they reviewed 1,278 pages of the state's evidence and found no report of whether the woman, an escort service employee, was tested for drugs or alcohol.

When police first encountered the woman, they took her to a detoxification clinic because they thought she was drunk. Earlier this month, Newsweek magazine wrote that Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong hinted that the woman might have been drugged.

According to the Durham Police Department's standard operating procedure, detectives on a sexual assault case should consider collecting a urine sample if there is an allegation or belief that a date rape drug was used.

Seligmann's attorneys, Kirk Osborn of Chapel Hill and Ernest Conner Jr. of Greenville, want to know whether anyone tested the woman for drugs or alcohol.

A message left for Nifong was not returned Monday.

Last week, Nifong turned over his first batch of evidence to lawyers representing Seligmann, Collin Finnerty, 19, of Garden City, N.Y., and Dave Evans, 23, of Bethesda, Md. The three players have been charged with rape, sex offense and kidnapping. Lawyers representing the team's players have said that no rape occurred at the party -- that two dancers arrived, and one of them was too drunk to perform.

Nifong turned over the documents, two videotapes and a compact disc of photos last week. Under the state's discovery law, the prosecution must turn over to defense lawyers all of the evidence it collects.

"We've been through the discovery," Osborn said. "We're not at all concerned with what we've seen."

Osborn declined to discuss the details of the files.

Behavior issue

The woman seems likely to be one of the most important witnesses the state can call, and whether she was drunk or had been drugged is sure to come up at trial.

Court filings show that her behavior that night has become an issue in the rape case. After the two escort service workers left the party, they went to a grocery store. Police got a call about an intoxicated person refusing to get out of a car in the parking lot of the Kroger on Hillsborough Road. Police took the accuser for detoxification to a county-run clinic. There, she said she had been raped. Police took her to Duke Hospital and officially changed the case from an intoxicated person to rape.

The defense team's attorneys, bolstered by photographs taken at the party, said the accuser was stumbling and incoherent when she arrived.

The other woman hired to dance at the party, Kim Roberts, told The News & Observer that the accuser was not drunk when she arrived.

But in a previous interview with Newsweek magazine, Roberts said that the players handed the women mixed drinks. Roberts did not drink hers but after the other woman had a drink and a half, she began stumbling.

The evidence provided to the lawyers includes mention of a blood sample and cheek swab taken from the woman, but a nurse trained in sexual assault examination specifically noted that toxicology samples were not collected, according to Seligmann's court papers filed Monday.

Staff writer Benjamin Niolet can be reached at 956-2404 or bniolet@newsobserver.com.
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