Third Duke Student Indicted in Rape Case

A third Duke University lacrosse player was indicted Monday in a rape case involving an exotic dancer, triggering an emotional -- and unusual -- public declaration of innocence from the accused before he turned himself in to police.

David Evans, a senior and team co-captain, was charged with first-degree rape, first-degree sexual offense and first-degree kidnapping in the March 14 incident. The indictment was handed down one day after he earned his undergraduate degree from the university in Durham, N.C.

The 23-year-old -- joined by his attorney, parents and grim-faced teammates -- held a news conference Monday on the Durham courthouse steps. In a voice tremulous and emphatic, he said that he and two other players who were indicted last month on similar charges would be exonerated because “it did not happen.”

“I am innocent, Reade Seligmann is innocent, Collin Finnerty is innocent -- every member of the Duke University lacrosse team is innocent,” Evans said. “You have all been told some fantastic lies, and I look forward to watching them unravel in the weeks to come, as they already have in weeks past.... The truth will come out.”

At Duke’s graduation Sunday, some students taped the jersey numbers of Seligmann and Finnerty on their mortarboards in a sign of solidarity. According to news reports, speakers at the ceremony alluded obliquely to the incident, the subsequent tensions in Durham and the national media attention.

The case, in which the accuser is black and the suspects are white, has exacerbated race and class tensions in the city of 187,000. Durham is about 44% black, and has areas of affluence and poverty. Duke, regarded as one of the nation’s leading academic institutions, was segregated until 1963.

Monday’s indictment of Evans was a sign that Durham District Atty. Mike Nifong intends to press ahead with the case, as he has promised. In a prepared statement, the only comment to come from the prosecutor’s office, Nifong said that he did not anticipate further indictments, lifting a cloud of suspicion from the 43 other lacrosse players who originally were under investigation.

His statement also said that “none of the evidence that we have developed implicates any member of that team other than those three against whom indictments have been returned.”

Evans was released after posting a $400,000 bond. Joseph B. Cheshire V, his lawyer, said Evans was scheduled to make an initial court appearance today, but would probably waive it.

Evans’ declaration of innocence, along with fiery comments Monday from Cheshire, were the latest salvo in a public relations battle that the prosecution and defense have been waging in anticipation of a jury trial.

Evans lived at the off-campus house where the dancer, a 27-year-old student at nearby North Carolina Central University, said she was raped during a party. At the news conference, Evans said that he had cooperated with police from the outset of their investigation. He also said he had passed a lie detector test conducted by a former FBI agent.

Both Evans and Cheshire lashed out at Nifong for refusing to allow them to present him with evidence that the defense has said is exculpatory. Cheshire said he made one last overture to the prosecutor Monday morning, but that it was rejected.

The focus of the case in recent days has been a round of DNA tests that Nifong sent to a private lab for analysis. Defense attorneys said an earlier round showed no link to any Duke lacrosse player.

Last week, sources close to the case told the Durham Herald-Sun that the new tests showed DNA found under one of the dancer’s false fingernails was “consistent” with that of a Duke player later identified as Evans. Police retrieved the fingernail from a bathroom trashcan during a search of the house in March.

But only a partial DNA pattern was obtained, making it less than 100% conclusive, sources told the paper. It is not clear how much of the pattern is missing.

“We’re playing guessing games until we know what kind of match this is,” said Dr. Lawrence Kobilinsky, a professor of forensic science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

Cheshire on Monday downplayed the evidence. It was a “weak” DNA match, and it was not found under the fingernail, as the paper reported, he said. He noted that other items in the trashcan also had Evans’ DNA on them.

But, the lawyer added, the tests did unequivocally establish that a vaginal swab taken from the accuser contained DNA that perfectly matched a man who was not believed to be at the party that night.

“The only single source of male DNA shows that it was someone other than a Duke lacrosse player, and yet Mr. Nifong has chosen to again indict, as he promised he would during his political campaign, a third lacrosse player,” Cheshire said, referring to the district attorney’s primary election victory this month.

The accuser identified the three suspects April 4 from photos shown to her by police. Cheshire and other defense attorneys have said the photo lineup violated Police Department policy because it did not mix in pictures of men who were not on the Duke lacrosse team, and therefore not suspects.

According to a transcript of the session, the woman identified Evans as one of her attackers, but said she was only 90% certain it was him. She also said the attacker had a mustache at the time.

Cheshire said his client had never worn a mustache.

He also noted that in a grand jury proceeding, the defense’s argument is not heard.

“As I like to say, a grand jury would indict a ham sandwich for the murder of a pig,” he said.

Evans, like Seligmann, 20, and Finnerty, 19, is from a privileged background. His father is a partner in a Washington, D.C., law firm, and his mother is a lobbyist who is chairwoman of the Ladies Professional Golf Assn.

Evans attended Landon School, an exclusive all-boys academy in Bethesda, Md., where he played on the lacrosse and football teams.

Months before the lacrosse team party, he had struck a deal that would have kept him from being charged with minor alcohol and noise violations in exchange for paying a fine, doing community service and exhibiting good behavior.

Last Monday, a judge reinstated the charges, saying that Evans’ playing host to the March party was a violation of the plea agreement.

The judge ordered an additional $100 fine for an open-container violation.

A hearing on the noise violation, a misdemeanor, is scheduled for May 23.