DURHAM - Judge Howard Manning ruled Wednesday that Mike Pressler, the former Duke University lacrosse coach, does not have to go through arbitration with his former employer and can pursue claims of slander and libel in the courtroom.

In a hearing in Durham County Superior Court that dripped with homespun colloquialisms and colorful courtroom arguments, Manning ruled only on the arbitration issue, not the merits of Pressler's defamation claims.

John M. Simpson, a Duke attorney, tried to convince Manning that before Pressler's claims could be considered by the courts, the former coach had to go through a university arbitration process.

Pressler, who built a national powerhouse lacrosse team during his 16 years at Duke, was forced out in April 2006 shortly after an escort service dancer accused players of gang-raping her -- allegations that turned out to be phony.

Last spring, Pressler and Duke reached a confidential settlement agreement.

Lawyer Donald Strickland, who is representing Pressler with colleague Jay Trehy, read several paragraphs from that agreement to show that Pressler was no longer bound by policies of previous contracts with Duke.

Pressler has alleged that John Burness, Duke's senior vice president of public affairs and government relations, made slanderous, libelous and defamatory remarks about him to the news media after the settlement agreement was reached.

Initially, Pressler argued that Duke had reneged on its settlement agreement, which had a clause prohibiting disparaging remarks.

But in a legal maneuver designed to sidestep arbitration, Pressler dropped that claim and slimmed down his complaint to focus on Burness' comments.

"We're left with nothing but a naked, soaking-wet bather of a lawsuit involving slander and libel," Manning observed.

In the suit, Pressler complains about an April 9, 2006, article in the New York newspaper Newsday quoting Burness as saying the difference between Pressler and current lacrosse coach John Danowski was "night and day."

In that article, the suit contends, Burness described Danowski as a "mensch," a Yiddish word for a person of great integrity and honor that Strickland and Trehy defined in their brief.

"I never heard the word 'mensch,' " Manning deadpanned. "Down here, you know, we just live in tents and eat clay."

The second comment that Pressler complained about came in June, when The Associated Press quoted Burness as saying, "It was essential for the team to have a change of leadership in order to move forward."

Without addressing the merits of the case, Manning said, "The question I have is why would anybody be dumb enough to say what [Burness] did" a year after Pressler was fired.

Burness was not at the hearing and could not be reached to discuss the judge's comments.

Pressler did not attend, either.

Duke's failure to persuade Manning to move the case to arbitration was the university's second loss in court this week on legal maneuvers tied to fallout from the Duke lacrosse case.

In Winston-Salem on Tuesday, a federal judge denied requests to sanction a lawyer representing 38 members of the 2006 team who were not charged in the phony criminal case.

Since losing his Duke job, Pressler has written and promoted a book about the lacrosse case. He now coaches at Bryant University in Rhode Island.