Rape case lineup facts are sought

The accuser in the Duke University lacrosse case viewed a photo lineup of players one week after the alleged attack and did not pick out a team captain who has since been charged with rape, according to court papers filed Friday.

The March 21 photo lineup was made public in a motion by lawyers for team captain David Evans. The motion asks for more evidence from the files of police and prosecutors about the lineup and other records.

It is unclear whether the accuser identified any players in the March 21 lineup. Defense attorneys said they did not get a report on the procedure.

Evans, 23, of Bethesda, Md., is one of three players charged with first-degree rape, sexual offense and kidnapping in the case. The others are Collin Finnerty, 19, of Garden City, N.Y., and Reade Seligmann, 20, of Essex Fells, N.J.

The accuser, an escort service dancer, told police she was raped during a Duke lacrosse team party at 610 N. Buchanan Blvd. in the early hours of March 14.

In a second lineup April 4, the woman picked out four players as possible attackers with varying levels of certainty, a police report on the lineup says. She said then that she was "about 90 percent sure" Evans was one assailant but said he had a moustache that night. Evans' attorneys say Evans has never had a moustache.

For the March 21 lineup, Durham police used official photos of the lacrosse players identical to those posted on GoDuke.com, the official Web site of Duke athletics. The police arranged the photos in groups labeled A through F, according to the motion filed Friday.

Evans' photo was labeled F-5. A Post-It note referring to group F said, "Did not pick any."

"Eight days after the alleged assault, and two weeks before the April 4 identification procedures in which she selected [Evans] with 90 percent certainty if he had a moustache, the complainant viewed a picture of [Evans] in this case and did not identify him as one of her alleged assailants," wrote Evans' attorneys, Joseph B. Cheshire V and Brad Bannon of Raleigh. "Incredibly, though, there is no narrative report ... about these photo identification procedures."

The March 21 lineup, as described in the motion, might have violated the Durham Police Department's policy on photographic lineups in two ways:

* The policy calls for "filler" photographs of people who are not suspects in the case. The March 21 lineup apparently included only Duke lacrosse players.

* The officer running the lineup is supposed to document the procedures, results and number of photos viewed. Evans' attorneys said they received no such report.

'Experienced' officers

On Thursday, attorneys for Finnerty made a related request to learn how the accuser described her assailants.

"The law enforcement officers who worked this case are well-trained, experienced officers," Finnerty's attorneys wrote. "At some point in their interviews and investigations, one or more of these officers asked [the accuser] to describe the men who she claims sexually assaulted her, and [she] provided some answer to the question."

The lawyers said the only mention they had received was a March 21 note by Investigator B.W. Himan: "I asked her questions trying to follow up on a better description of the suspects, she was unable to remember anything further about the suspects."

On May 18, District Attorney Mike Nifong gave defense attorneys 1,278 pages of documents, two videotapes and digital files on a compact disc.

Nifong said Friday that he has handed over everything in his file to the defense and will make more material available as he receives it. He has declined to discuss the case since early April, after a barrage of interviews with the national news media.