Duke Accuser Reported Prior Rape

A jury might never hear about the rape allegations made to police 10 years ago by the exotic dancer who says she was raped last month by three Duke University lacrosse players, a prosecutor said Friday.

District Attorney Mike Nifong said North Carolina's rape shield law lists "narrowly defined categories" under which evidence of an accuser's past sexual history is allowed as evidence. The court must hold a hearing to determine if the evidence meets those categories and to decide how it can be presented.

"In short, the jury that decides this case may or may not hear the 'evidence,'" Nifong said.

"The media are not bound by the same rules that govern our courts," he said. "Their decisions on what to report and how they report it (can) have a substantial impact on the ability of our system to effectuate justice. That impact is often positive. Unfortunately, it can also be negative."

In the 1996 report, the woman claims she was raped and beaten by three men when she was 14 years old. Authorities said none of the men named in the report was ever charged with sexual assault in nearby Granville County, where the woman said she was attacked.

Nifong's office contacted Creedmoor police Friday morning, seeking information about the incident report, said Mayor Darryl Moss. He and police Chief Ted Pollard said officials there are continuing to look for additional records, but have so far been unable to locate any other paperwork.

Relatives told Essence magazine in an online story this week that the woman declined to pursue the case out of fear for her safety.

A phone number for the accuser has been disconnected, and her father said Thursday night he remembered little about the incident except going with police to a home where he said his daughter was being held "against her will."

The existence of the earlier rape report surprised defense attorneys in the Duke case, who have sought information about the woman's past for use in attacking her credibility.

"That's the very first I've heard of that," said Bill Cotter, the attorney for indicted lacrosse player Collin Finnerty. He declined additional comment.

Finnerty and fellow Duke player Reade Seligmann are charged with first-degree rape, kidnapping and sexual assault and face a hearing May 15.

The accuser is a 27-year-old student at North Carolina Central University in Durham who told police she was hired to perform as a stripper at a March 13 party.

Seligmann's legal team earlier this week filed a motion seeking her medical, legal and education records. The lawyers also asked for a pretrial hearing to determine if she is credible.

Attorney Joe Cheshire, who represents a player on the team who has not been charged, said it was notable that authorities apparently decided not to prosecute the earlier case.

"These are serious allegations, particularly for a person that age. In my mind, it would raise real issues about her credibility," he said.

In a sign that the defense planned to attack the woman's credibility, Seligmann's attorney, Kirk Osborn, demanded Monday that prosecutors turn over the accuser's medical, legal and education records, CBS News reported. Attorneys asked the state to hold a pretrial hearing to "determine if the complaining witness is even credible enough to provide reliable testimony."

"This request is based on the fact that the complaining witness has a history of criminal activity and behavior, which includes alcohol abuse, drug abuse, and dishonesty, all conduct which indicate mental, emotional and/or physical problems, which affect her credibility as a witness," the defense said in court papers.

According to the Creedmoor police report in August 1996, when the woman was 18, she told officers she was raped and beaten by three men "for a continual time" in 1993. She told police she was attacked at an "unspecified location" on a street in Creedmoor, a town 15 miles northeast of Durham.

Asked Thursday if she was sexually assaulted, her father said, "I can't remember." In an interview with the News & Observer of Raleigh, posted Thursday night on the newspaper's Web site, he said the men "didn't do anything to her."

The report lists the names of the three men, but no other details.

Durham police Officer Brian Bishop, who interviewed the accuser in 1996 while working on the Creedmoor force, said Thursday he had a vague recollection of the report. He said he could not remember any details. Reached Friday, Bishop said he could no longer discuss the case.

Before Seligmann and Finnerty were indicted, attorneys for the players pointed to the accuser's criminal history when answering questions about their clients' legal troubles: The woman pleaded guilty to several misdemeanors in 2002.

Meanwhile, Greg Fulton, a reporter at Time magazine tells CBS News' The Early Show that prosecutors may call into question the allegedly time-stamped photos the defense is using as an alibi for the two players charged in the case.

Defense attorneys say the key photo was taken at 12:41 a.m., and shows the accuser calmly being helped into a car to leave the party, as CBS News correspondent Trish Regan reported. In that photo, the accuser is in a black or dark-colored car, which matches a description of the car defense and prosecution sources say dropped her off at the party.

But prosecutors will argue that the photo actually shows the accuser being dropped off at the party, not leaving it, and that it was taken well before midnight, Time reports. Prints taken from digital cell phone cameras have time stamps, but can be altered, according to digital photography experts.

Taxi driver Moez Mostafa told Time in an exclusive interview that he told investigators he saw exotic dancer Kim Roberts exchange angry words with lacrosse players, enter "an old white car" and speed away from the scene. Mostafa's statement casts doubt over what has become an alibis for the defense, the allegedly time-stamped photos taken by players the night of the party, Fulton tells The Early Show.

"It may help them again in the category of casting doubt in a jury's mind," Fulton said.