Duke Lacrosse To Play Next Season?

Committee Recommends Team Resume Play, But Needs Strict Monitoring

(CBS/AP)  A Duke University committee recommended its men's lacrosse team resume play next season, but said the team had a history of problems tied to alcohol and needed strict monitoring.

"Although the pattern of misconduct in recent years by the lacrosse team is alarming, the evidence reviewed ... does not warrant suspension of the sport," a committee of seven faculty members wrote in a report released Monday night.

Duke suspended the highly ranked lacrosse team from play last month, following allegations that a 27-year-old black student at a nearby university hired to strip at a March 13 team party was raped and beaten by three white men.

A grand jury has indicted two players on charges of rape, kidnapping and sexual assault, and District Attorney Mike Nifong has said he hopes to charge a third person.

The report released Monday night did not consider the rape allegations, but instead focused on the behavior of the team during the past five years. It found that while the team performed well academically and athletically, "a large number of the members of the team have been socially irresponsible when under the influence of alcohol."

"We looked closely but found no compelling evidence to support claims that these players are racist or have a record of sexual violence," said Duke Law School professor James E. Coleman Jr., who chaired the faculty committee that prepared the report.

The rape allegations led Duke to accept the resignation of coach Mike Pressler and begin several internal investigations, including the examination of the lacrosse program.

The two players charged — sophomores Reade Seligmann, of Essex Fells, N.J., and Collin Finnerty, of Garden City, N.Y. — have been released on $400,000 bond and are scheduled to next appear in court on May 15.

The same day the report was released and the day before Durham County elections, a defense attorney accused Nifong of using the case to help his election prospects and asked for his removal from the case.

"District Attorney Mike Nifong neglected his duties as a prosecutor to seek the truth and a fair prosecution," wrote attorney Kirk Osborn, who represents indicted player Reade Seligmann. "He created an actual conflict between his professional duty to search for the truth and his personal, vested interest in getting elected."

The motion seeking Nifong's removal was among several Osborn filed Monday. He also asked the court to throw out the photo identifications made by the accuser — a 27-year-old student at a nearby university hired to strip at a March 13 team party — calling the police photo lineup "unnecessarily suggestive and conducive to irreparable mistake and misidentification."

Voters will go to the polls Tuesday to cast ballots in the Democratic district attorney primary. Three candidates are Nifong, Keith Bishop and Freda Black — all Democrats. Black, a former prosecutor who was replaced by Nifong, has criticized Nifong's handling of the Duke rape investigation, CBS News correspondent Trish Regan reports.