Duke Accuser: Player 'Did Not Commit Sex Acts on Me'
Jan. 11, 2007 — -- The accuser in the Duke lacrosse sex assault case now says that one of the players did not sexually assault her at all and has changed the time she alleges the attack took place, according to new motions filed by defense lawyers today.
The accuser now "admits that Reade Seligmann did not commit any sex acts on her," defense attorneys said in court papers.
Defense attorneys also say the accuser "now claims the attack took place between 11:35 p.m. and midnight, which … is contradicted by the accuser's own cell phone records and the cell phone records of Reade Seligmann and his girlfriend."
The accuser initially told investigators she was raped after midnight. She now says it took place at 11:35 p.m. and lasted until about midnight. The woman initially said that she and the other dancer had left the party immediately after the assault.
Cell phone records and a 911 call the second dancer made to police, however, indicate the pair didn't leave the house until almost 1 a.m.
Three Duke students -- Colin Finnerty, Reade Seligmann and David Evans -- were indicted in the spring on charges of felony rape, kidnapping and sexual assault for an alleged incident on March 13, during a Duke lacrosse team party.
The accuser and a second dancer named Kim Roberts had been hired to strip at the party. The accuser said that she was beaten and gang-raped by several men in a bathroom during the party held by lacrosse players from Duke University.
Transcripts of the interview that Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong's investigator conducted on Dec. 21, with the accuser were released to defense attorneys last week, according to court papers.
That interview prompted Nifong to drop the rape charges against the three players after the accuser said she could no longer be certain that she was raped.
The definition of rape in North Carolina is specifically penetration of the female sex organ by the male sex organ. The accuser said last month that she could no longer be certain she was penetrated by a penis.
Charges of sexual assault and kidnapping remain in the case.
Nifong could not immediately be reached for comment.
In a December interview with investigators, the accuser did not say specifically that Seligmann did not attack her. However, she now says he was present but simply watched as others sexually assaulted her.
Previously, she had said he forced her to perform oral sex on him.
According to the district attorney's office, the accuser said:
"Once inside the bathroom, Dave Evans was behind me, Reade Seligmann was in front of me, and Finnerty was on the floor under Seligmann."
"I felt a sharp pain in my vagina, and someone said, 'We're gonna rape or f--k this n--r bitch."
According to the interview, the accuser said that Evans was in the rear and that after a few minutes he asked Seligmann to get behind her. Seligmann, she told investigators, said he didn't want to because he was getting married.
Both Finnerty and Evans, the accuser said, were trying to get Seligmann to "do it," but he kept saying no.
Seligmann's attorneys believed that they had established a seemingly strong alibi for him using cell phone, taxi and ATM receipts that showed he was not at the house after midnight. His cell phone records show, however, that he would have been on the phone during the height of the alleged attack under the new timeline.
She also said that Finnerty raped her anally and vaginally, but now says she cannot be sure of that.
Defense attorneys have seized on the accuser's different accounts of the alleged attack.
The defense filed the papers as a supplement to a motion to suppress the identification of the defendants by the accuser.
"The accuser's most recent recollection of events demonstrates clearly that she cannot accurately recall and describe her attackers and that any identification made by her is necessarily unreliable," defense attorneys argued in court papers.
In her statements to a district attorney investigator last month, the woman also recanted her allegation that Evans had a moustache the night she said she was attacked. She now says it was more like a "5 o'clock shadow," according to court papers.
