In her latest statement to investigators, the accuser in the Duke lacrosse case again changed her account of when she says she was sexually assaulted, who attacked her and how.

In a December interview with Nifong's chief investigator, the woman touches on problems with the case that have surfaced in news reports and court filings: flawed identification procedures, no DNA evidence, and conflicting descriptions of her attackers and what they did to her at a March 13 team party. The new account, however, contradicts the woman's cell phone records, time-stamped photographs of the party, 911 records and all her previous statements.

The woman adjusted the timing of the assault to earlier in the evening, a period before the well-documented alibi of one accused player, Reade Seligmann. The defense, however, introduced more alibi evidence: Seligmann was speaking on a cell phone with his girlfriend during part of the time the accuser now says an attack occurred.

Defense lawyers attached the new statement to a court filing Thursday arguing that the woman is an unreliable witness. The three players, Seligmann, David Evans and Collin Finnerty, are charged with sexual offense and kidnapping. They have called the accusations lies and said they are innocent.

It is the policy of The News & Observer not to identify complainants in sexual assault cases. A judge is to hear several motions filed in the case Feb. 5.

Critics, such as Duke law professor James Coleman, said the new document was a blatant attempt to fix a flawed case and called for a criminal investigation of Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong and his staff.

"Who would believe that a witness, nine months later, suddenly recalls facts that coincidentally negate evidence produced by the defense?" said Coleman, who led a Duke committee that investigated the lacrosse team's culture and has criticized Nifong's handling of the case for months.

"These people are almost criminal. It's making a mockery of the system. It's like Nifong is mooning the system. It's contemptuous."

Nifong's assistant said he would not be available for comment Thursday.

The new account comes from a Dec. 21 interview by Linwood Wilson, Nifong's chief investigator. It was the first time anyone from the District Attorney's Office discussed the case with the woman since charges were filed in April. The interview came less than a week after a private laboratory director testified that he and Nifong agreed not to report DNA evidence favorable to the three accused players.

The woman said in the interview that she was no longer certain the players had vaginally assaulted her with their penises -- North Carolina's legal definition of rape. That prompted Nifong to drop the rape charges.

Multiple names

In previous accounts, the accuser said she was assaulted by three men: "Adam," "Brett" and "Matt."

In the Dec. 21 interview, she said for the first time that the players used multiple names: Evans and Seligmann, she said, used a total of four names, while Finnerty did not use a name.

"Inv. Wilson asked [the accuser] to tell him whose names the guys were using on March 13 2006 since she now knows their real names," Wilson wrote in his typed notes. "This is her answers: Dan, Adam and Brett was used by Dave Evans. Adam and Matt was also used by Reade Seligmann. She does not remember a name being used for Collin Finnerty or if he was called by a name."

The investigator added a handwritten note that "Matt = Finnerty."

The defense lawyers said the aliases were preposterous.

" 'Adam' could be either Reade Seligmann or Dave Evans, while apparently 'Dan' and 'Brett' are both Dave Evans, and it now appears that 'Matt' can only be Reade Seligmann (when he is not 'Adam')," the motion stated. "The handwritten notes -- as opposed to what appears in the typewritten version -- appear to indicate that the accuser may have claimed that Dave Evans had four names, Reade Seligmann had two names (one of which was shared with Dave Evans) and Collin Finnerty had one name (that may have also been shared with Dave Evans)."

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