Duke lawyers get time to sift

New prosecutors have until May

DURHAM -- The new prosecutors in the Duke University lacrosse case have until May to prepare for court.

Special prosecutors from the state Attorney General's Office met Tuesday with lawyers representing three former lacrosse players who are accused of sexually assaulting an escort service dancer at a team party.

The defense had planned next week to challenge in court key parts of the case brought by Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong. Earlier this month, Nifong asked to be removed from the case in the wake of an ethics complaint filed against him by the N.C. State Bar. The state attorney general assigned veteran prosecutors Jim Coman and Mary Winstead to the case.

The prosecutors inherited a mammoth-sized case. Thousands of pages of evidence have been turned over to defense attorneys. The prosecutors will use the extra time to review the case, Attorney General Roy Cooper said in a prepared statement.

"We will use this time to continue reviewing the case files, talking to the many people involved in the case and making sure that all discovery requests have been responded to properly," Cooper said in the statement.

A judge agreed to the May date.

David Evans, 23, of Bethesda, Md.; Collin Finnerty, 20, of Garden City, N.Y.; and Reade Seligmann, 20, of Essex Fells, N.J., are charged with sexual offense and kidnapping. Nifong dropped a rape charge after the accuser said she was no longer sure of a key detail of her story.

After the two-hour meeting, defense attorneys said they were pleased with the prosecutors. They described the session as a business meeting -- a far cry from the days when Nifong refused to sit with the lawyers. Defense attorneys in the case had criticized Nifong for refusing to meet with them even when they said they had evidence that the accusations were lies and that at least one of the charged players had an alibi.

"We are excited to have professional prosecutors who are willing to sit down and engage us in conversation," said Joseph B. Cheshire V, one of Evans' attorneys. "We are excited that we are now engaged in a professional process."

Wade Smith, an attorney for Finnerty, said the meeting was mostly about scheduling.

"It's the kind of thing lawyers and prosecutors should do. They should talk," Smith said.