The Duke Case: Statement From Attorney General

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Statement from North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper on the Duke University lacrosse rape case. ...

Good afternoon, everyone.
On Jan. 13 of this year, I accepted the request of the Durham district attorney to take over three Durham cases. At the time, I promised a fresh and thorough review of the facts and a decision on the best way to proceed. I also said that we would have our eyes wide open to the evidence, but that we would have blinders on for all other distractions. We've done all of these things.
During the past 12 weeks, our lawyers and investigators have reviewed the remaining allegations of sexual assault and kidnapping that resulted from a party on March 13, 2006, in Durham, N.C.
We have carefully reviewed the evidence collected by the Durham County prosecutor's office and the Durham Police Department. We have also conducted our own interviews and evidence gathering. Our attorneys and SBI (State Bureau of Investigation) agents have interviewed numerous people who were at the party, DNA and other experts, the Durham County district attorney, Durham police officers, defense attorneys and the accusing witness on several occasions. We have reviewed statements given over the past year, photographs, records and other evidence.
The result of our review and investigation shows clearly that there is insufficient evidence to proceed on any of the charges. Today we are filing notices of dismissal for all charges against Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty and David Evans.
The result is that these cases are over, and no more criminal proceedings will occur.
We believe that these cases were the result of a tragic rush to accuse and a failure to verify serious allegations. Based on the significant inconsistencies between the evidence and the various accounts given by the accusing witness, we believe these three individuals are innocent of these charges.
We approached this case with the understanding that rape and sexual assault victims often have some inconsistencies in their accounts of a traumatic event. However, in this case, the inconsistencies were so significant and so contrary to the evidence that we have no credible evidence that an attack occurred in that house that night.
The prosecuting witness in this case responded to questions and offered information. She did want to move forward with the prosecution.
However, the contradictions in her many versions of what occurred and the conflicts between what she said occurred and other evidence, like photographs and phone records, could not be rectified.
Our investigation shows that:
The eyewitness identification procedures were faulty and unreliable. No DNA confirms the accuser's story. No other witness confirms her story. Other evidence contradicts her story. She contradicts herself. Next week, we'll be providing a written summary of the important factual findings and some of the specific contradictions that have led us to the conclusion that no attack occurred.
In this case, with the weight of the state behind him, the Durham district attorney pushed forward unchecked. There were many points in the case where caution would have served justice better than bravado. And in the rush to condemn, a community and a state lost the ability to see clearly. Regardless of the reasons this case was pushed forward, the result was wrong. Today, we need to learn from this and keep it from happening again to anybody.
Now, we have good district attorneys in North Carolina who are both tough and fair. And we need these forceful, independent prosecutors to put criminals away and protect the public. But we also need checks and balances to protect the innocent. This case shows the enormous consequences of overreaching by a prosecutor. What has been learned here is that the internal checks on a criminal charge — sworn statements, reasonable grounds, proper suspect photo lineups, accurate and fair discovery — all are critically important.
Therefore, I propose a law that the North Carolina Supreme Court have the authority to remove a case from a prosecutor in limited circumstances. This would give the courts a new tool to deal with a prosecutor who needs to step away from a case where justice demands.
I want to thank everyone in the North Carolina Department of Justice. I want to thank our investigators, our SBI agents and especially attorneys Jim Coman and Mary Winstead for their hard work in this matter.
I'll take some of your questions now.

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Hi Harry

This was as expected but the AG went even further than most people thought he would and issued a very strong statement exonerating the students, stating they are innocent and no attack occurred (I thought he might pull his punches and merely dismiss charges based on insufficient evidence.) The only thing that irritates me is that they won't pursue charges against the accuser, even though they clearly think she's a liar who fabricated the story! If there were ever a case in which to bring charges of filing a false report or obstructing justice, this would be it! How the AG can feel that letting her off the hook is in the best interests of justice is baffling, and how he feels that she deserves the benefit of the doubt because she might actually believe her wildly contradictory accounts of what happened/didn't happen that night is even more bewildering. Good grief, what must a woman do to be held accountable for her lies and her deranged effort to send three innocent men to prison for decades? How much more egregious must her behavior be to draw more than a verbal slap on the wrist from the top lawyer of the state? The message here to women is: You can lie and make false allegations and try to frame innocent men for heinous crimes, and even if the case goes nowhere and you're uncovered as malicious liars, you won't face any consequences for your misdeeds. In fact, you'll still elicit sympathy as a "troubled soul" who suffers from mental illness and has experienced abuse in life, and who deserves the kid gloves treatment and a second chance. (sniffle sniffle) And what's with the AP's continued refusal to name her?! She LIED. She's a vindictive b*tch, and her malice and dishonesty have been fully exposed now for all to see--but we're still going to shield her identity as if she's a legitimate victim of sexual assault!

Disgusting.

E