The three former Duke lacrosse players wrongly accused of rape filed a sweeping civil rights lawsuit today against the city of Durham, a host of police officers, former District Attorney Mike Nifong, and the DNA laboratory hired by the disbarred former prosecutor.

The 162-page lawsuit called the case "one of the most chilling episodes of premeditated police, prosecutorial, and scientific misconduct in modern American history, which resulted in charges brought and maintained against three innocent Duke University students and lacrosse players over a period of more than one year. "

The three former lacrosse players - Dave Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann — were charged with raping an escort service dancer at an off-campus lacrosse team party in March 2006. After taking over the investigation earlier this year, the state Attorney General said no crime occurred and declared the three men innocent.

Durham officials vowed to defend the city and its employees against the suit.

"We understand that the complaint asserts claims against the city and its employees that appear to be based on untested and unproven legal theories," city spokeswoman Beverly B. Thompson said today, adding that she couldn't elaborate on what theories those might be.

"In light of that, the City Council has directed legal counsel to vigorously defend the city and city employees in court against this lawsuit."

The city has retained the law firm of Steptoe & Johnson, an international firm with a Washington, D.C. office, to help defend itself against the suit, several council members said. Thompson said she didn't know which Steptoe attorney or attorneys would be directly involved in the case.

In June the State Bar took away Nifong's law license for making inflammatory public statements and hiding evidence that showed the players' innocence. Nifong recently spent 24 hours in jail for lying in court to a judge.

The lawsuit was filed against former District Attorney Mike Nifong; Linwood Wilson, Nifong's investigator; the city of Durham; former Durham Police Chief Steve Chalmers; Deputy Chief Ron Hodge; Captain Jeff Lamb; Major Beverly Hodge; Major Stephen Mihaich; Lt. Michael Ripberger; Major Lee Russ; Sgt. Mark Gottlieb, and Investigator Benjamin Himan.

The lawsuit also named DNA Security Inc., the private laboratory hired by Nifong to perform DNA testing; Richard Clark, the owner of the laboratory, and Brian Meehan, the scientist who performed the tests.

The lawsuit charges that the defendants maliciously conspired to charge three innocent men with rape, even though they knew that charges were "a total fabrication by a mentally troubled, drug-prone exotic dancer whose claims, time and again, were contradicted by physical evidence, documentary evidence, other witnesses, and even the accuser herself."

The motive, according to the lawsuit, was to use the false allegations as fuel for a media campaign so that Nifong could win a contested election for District Attorney.

The lawsuit does not name the accuser, Crystal Gail Mangum.

The three players demand a host of reforms in the Durham Police Department, and ask that a judge appoint an independent monitor to oversee the police department for 10 years and create a three-member Police Review Committee. The monitor would have the power to hire, fire and promote all police officials, including the chief, and would make annual reports to the court. The review committee would publicly hear complaints of police misconduct.

The lawsuit also asked that the police be ordered to follow their own guidelines on photo lineups and videotape the procedures.

The three players made an unspecified demand for money damages. The News & Observer and other media have previously reported that the three players told city officials that Durham would have to pay $30 million to settle the lawsuit.