Attorneys: Photos Will Exonerate Players
DURHAM, N.C. -- NBC has obtained exclusive photos that defense lawyers for the Duke University lacrosse players feel will exonerate their clients of rape charges.
Collin Finnerty, 19, and Reade Seligmann, 20, were charged Tuesday with first-degree rape, first-degree sex offense and first-degree kidnapping after a woman said she was raped and beaten at a March 13 lacrosse team party, where she was performing as an exotic dancer.
Dan Abrams, a Duke graduate and former lawyer who now hosts "The Abrams Report" on MSNBC, said he has copies of a series of photos lacrosse team players said they took at the party.
Finnerty appears in none of the photos, Abrams said, which bolsters defense attorneys' claims that the teen wasn't at the party when the alleged rape occurred.
Although Seligmann was in some photos, defense attorneys said the have records from a cab company, ATM receipts and other information with which they can prove he left the party before the alleged rape took place.
The photos help establish a timeline for the events at the party, Abrams said.
Some photos taken before midnight show the players partying before the accuser and another dancer arrived. No photos were taken between 12:10 a.m. and 12:30 a.m., but the dancer is pictured in several shots taken between 12:31 a.m. and 12:41 a.m. in which she was smiling and getting into a car, Abrams said.
"You could argue that something might have happened in that period between 12:10 and 12:30. The defense would say, though, that because she's smiling in the photo taken at 12:31, it would be hard to believe that she had been brutally raped," he said.
Abrams said it was "certainly possible" that the woman had been given a date-rape drug by someone at the party. But he said there has been no evidence to support that claim.
The photos also bolster the defense claims by what they don't show, Abrams said.
Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong previously said no DNA was found under the accuser's fingernails linking lacrosse players to an attack where she fought back because the attackers were likely wearing long-sleeve shirts or jackets. But Seligmann and most of the players pictured at the party were wearing short sleeves, Abrams said.
Nifong has declined to say what led to the charges or discuss evidence in the case.
Durham police searched two Duke dorm rooms Tuesday night for about two hours, according to resident assistant Taggart White. The contents of the search warrants had not been released by Wednesday evening, so it's unclear what officers were looking for or found.
Nifong said Tuesday that he is still gathering evidence in the case so he can charge a third lacrosse team member.
"I can imagine they never quit investigating, but I think it's unusual to be executing search warrants after they've indicted," defense attorney Bill Cotter said.
Robert Ekstrand, who represents dozens of players on the team, said neither Seligmann nor Finnerty was at the party "at the relevant time." The indictment represents "a horrible circumstance and a product of a rush to judgment," he said.
The case has raised racial tensions and heightened the long-standing town-gown antagonism between Duke students and middle-class, racially mixed Durham. The accuser is black, and all but one of the 47 lacrosse team members are white.
Duke would not comment specifically on any disciplinary action taken against Seligmann and Finnerty, but said it is university practice to suspend students charged with a felony.
Since the scandal broke, the university has canceled the team's season, its coach resigned and Duke officials said they were investigating the behavior of the nationally ranked team, some of whose members have been found guilty of public intoxication and public urination.
Neither Seligmann and Finnerty was among the team members arrested in recent years for such offenses as underage drinking and public urination.
Finnerty, however, was charged in Washington, D.C., with assault after a man told police in November that Finnerty and two friends punched him and called him "gay and other derogatory names." Finnerty agreed to community service
