Durham, N.C. – By releasing embarrassing details about the stripper who claims she was raped at a party held by Duke University’s lacrosse team, the players’ attorneys are employing the same strategy used successfully to defend NBA star Kobe Bryant against rape charges: publicly attack the accuser’s credibility.
“This is what the defense does, is try to smear the victim in the public and make it impossible to get a jury,” said Eagle County District Attorney Mark Hurlbert, who charged Bryant.
No one has been charged in the Duke case, and defense attorneys said District Attorney Mike Nifong should drop the investigation after DNA test results revealed no connection to the stripper Monday.
Authorities ordered 46 of the 47 players on the team to submit DNA samples.
“There is no evidence other than the word of this one complaining person that any rape or sexual assault took place,” said attorney Joseph B. Cheshire V, who represents one of the four team captains.
But Nifong said the DNA results do not end anything.
“I’m not saying it’s over. If that’s what they expect, they will be sadly disappointed,” Nifong said. “They can say anything they want, but I’m still in the middle of my investigation. I believe a sexual assault took place.”
Nifong has said all along he didn’t need a match to pursue the case against the players, and experts agree.
“The truth is if you speak to crime lab directors, they will tell you that in only a relatively small number of cases is there any DNA evidence,” said Peter Neufeld, co- founder and co-director of the Innocence Project, which uses DNA to free people wrongly imprisoned. “In rape cases there is an expectation of DNA, but like many expectations, often it is misplaced.”
The woman’s father said he learned of the test results through news reports. “It hasn’t really sank in,” he said.
He said he believes his daughter, who is a student at N.C. Central University, and that he does not believe the test results will end the case.
“I do still think there’s a chance,” he said.
Given Nifong’s position, defense attorneys have stepped up efforts to portray the accuser as a liar.
Over the weekend, they told reporters photos taken at the party show the woman was injured even before she arrived, and impaired, too.
They also pointed to a June 2002 incident in which the alleged victim stole the taxi of a man to whom she was giving a lap dance at a strip club. Court records say she led a sheriff’s deputy on a winding chase at up to 70 mph, and tried to run him down as he approached the cab. She pleaded guilty to misdemeanor counts of larceny, speeding to elude arrest, assault on a government official and driving while impaired.
The players’ attorneys also have attacked the woman’s statement to police that she and another dancer left the party in fear after the crowd became “excited and aggressive,” returning only after one of the players apologized.
They say photos, which they have not made public, show the woman smiling as she sought to re-enter the house.
Hurlbert called the strategy “a disservice to justice.” He is just as critical of Nifong, saying he should have waited for more evidence before declaring a rape had occurred.
“I’d love them to just keep their mouths shut,” Hurlbert said. “It would be nice to be able to play fair on both sides.”
