Possible DNA Link To Duke Player?
Newspaper Reports Tissue 'Consistent' With 1 Of 46 Players
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This house, photographed Wednesday March 29, 2006, on North Buchanan Boulevard in Durham, N.C., was the site of the alledged assault March 13. (CBS/AP)
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The Durham Herald-Sun reports that scientists who analyzed the tissue concluded it came from the same genetic pool and was "consistent" with the bodily makeup of one of 46 lacrosse players who gave DNA samples for testing. Scientists ruled out a possible match with any of the other 45 students, sources told the newspaper.
The dancer told police she clawed at three attackers as they raped and sodomized her for 30 minutes during the March 13-14 lacrosse house party. Police later recovered several stick-on acrylic fingernails from a trashcan, and the tissue in question was found under one of those nails, the newspaper reports.
The State Bureau of Investigation did an initial round of DNA testing in the lacrosse case. But defense attorneys told the Durham Herald-Sun that the SBI found no DNA from the 46 lacrosse players in or on the dancer's body, on her clothing and belongings or under her fingernails.
District Attorney Michael Nifong also hired a private laboratory to do additional testing. A final report from that lab is due back by Monday, the newspaper reports.
Duke sophomores Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann have been the only players charged in the case. They are charged with rape, kidnapping and sexual assault.
Finnerty was set to appear in court with Seligmann on May 18, but defense attorneys said in a motion that Nifong had informed them he would not be able to complete evidence discovery by next week, so Superior Court Judge Ronald L. Stephens moved Finnerty's hearing to mid-June. Seligmann's attorney, Kirk Osborn, said his client was still scheduled to appear in court next week.
Nifong said earlier he was pursuing the possibility of another indictment. The tissue found under the dancer's fingernails was consistent with the third man's DNA pattern, whom the alleged victim identified with 90 percent certainty, sources told The Herald-Sun on Wednesday.
CBS affiliate WRAL-TV, citing a transcript of the photo identification session the dancer had with police, also reported Wednesday that she indicated a fourth player also may have been involved in assaulting her.
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