Two from Duke lacrosse arrested
Two Duke University lacrosse players were arrested early Tuesday on charges of raping and kidnapping a stripper hired to dance at an off-campus party, and the district attorney said he hopes to charge a third person soon.
The indictments, unsealed Tuesday, did not indicate what possible evidence or arguments led the grand jury Monday to indict Reade Seligmann, 20, and Collin Finnerty, 19. District Attorney Mike Nifong would not discuss the evidence.
?It had been my hope to charge all three of the assailants at the same time, but the evidence available to me at this moment does not permit that,? Nifong said. ?Investigation into the identity of the third assailant will continue in the hope that he can also be identified with certainty.?
Seligmann posted a $400,000 bond shortly after his arrest, and his attorney waived his court appearance.
Finnerty, who posting the same amount later Tuesday, made a brief appearance in Superior Court wearing a jacket and tie. The next court appearance for both players was set for May 15.
Both Seligmann, a 6-foot-1 sophomore from Essex Fells, N.J., and Finnerty, a 6-foot-3 sophomore from Garden City, N.Y., were in handcuffs when they stepped out of a police cruiser before dawn.
Seligmann is ?absolutely innocent,? said his attorney, Kirk Osborn. ?He?s doing great.? Asked what led to the indictments, Osborn said: ?Apparently it was a photographic identification. And we all know how reliable that is.?
Finnerty?s attorney, Bill Cotter, said, ?We?re surprised that anybody got indicted, quite frankly.?
?The next jury will hear the entire story, which includes our evidence, and we?re confident that these young men will be found to be innocent,? he said.
The exotic dancer, a 27-year-old black woman and mother of two children, told police she was attacked March 13 by three white men in a bathroom at an off-campus party held by the lacrosse team.
Bill Thomas, a defense attorney representing one of the team captains, said Tuesday that neither Seligmann nor Finnerty had any contact with the woman that night. ?We are … actually shocked,? he said. ?We always thought she would pick out someone who at least had a conversation with her or paid her.?
Thomas said ?multiple witnesses and a commercial transaction? indicated one of the charged players wasn?t at the party. And defense attorney Robert Ekstrand, who represents other players, said neither Seligmann nor Finnerty was at the party ?at the relevant time.?
Calls to the Finnerty and Seligmann homes Tuesday morning were not immediately returned. No one answered the door at the Finnerty house, which sits in a cul-de-sac of million-dollar homes on Long Island. A lacrosse net and equipment could be seen in the yard.
Shortly after the allegations surfaced last month, Seligmann?s father, Philip Seligmann, spoke to The New York Times about the allegations involving the team, saying, ?It?s unfortunate, but it will all be resolved positively very shortly.?
The racially charged allegations have led to near daily protest rallies at Duke.
The school canceled the highly ranked team?s season and accepted the resignation of coach Mike Pressler after the release of a vulgar and graphic e-mail that was sent by a team member shortly after the alleged assault.
?Many lives have been touched by this case,? said Duke President Richard Brodhead in a statement. ?It has brought pain and suffering to all involved, and it deeply challenges our ability to balance judgment with compassion. As the legal process unfolds, we must hope that it brings a speedy resolution and that the truth of the events is fully clarified.?