Duke Captain: Charges Are All Lies

A Duke University's lacrosse team captain became the third player indicted in the rape scandal Monday and the first to speak out, blasting the charges against him as "fantastic lies."

"I look forward to watching them unravel in the weeks to come," said David Evans, a just-graduated 23-year-old economics major from Bethesda, Md., who was one of four team captains.

At a news conference, Evans was backed by other players and his mother, Rae Evans, a Washington lobbyist who is the chairwoman of the Ladies Professional Golf Association board of directors.

The charges followed a March 13 party at an off-campus house, where a 27-year-old black student at nearby North Carolina Central University told police she was raped and beaten by three white men after she and another woman were hired as strippers.

Evans also proclaimed the innocence of sophomores Reade Seligmann, 20, of Essex Fells, N.J., and Collin Finnerty, 19, of Garden City, N.Y., both of whom were indicted last month on the same charges.

CBS News correspondent Trish Regan reports Evans claimed that he had cooperated with investigators from the start by helping them collect evidence from his home, the site of the alleged rape; by volunteering to take a lie-detector test; and by offering to meet District Attorney Mike Nifong in person, a request that was denied.

Nifong issued a statement late Monday afternoon saying that he had no plans to indict any other lacrosse team members, Regan reports.

Defense attorneys have insisted all the players are innocent, citing DNA tests they say found no match between any of the team's white players and the accuser.

According to defense attorneys, second, more detailed DNA tests came back Friday and prove no player had sex with the dancer — but that the accuser had sex with another man.

Attorney Joseph Cheshire said the tests showed genetic material from a "single male source" was found on a vaginal swab taken from the accuser, but that material did not match any of the players.

"In other words, it appears this woman had sex with a male," said Cheshire, who spoke at a news conference with other defense attorneys in the case. "It also appears with certainty it wasn't a Duke lacrosse player."

Still, inconclusive genetic material that resembles two players' DNA was found under one of the accuser's plastic fingernails and that's the evidence Nifong is expected to use, reported Regan. According to a search warrant executed March 16, police recovered five fingernails from the house, but it was unclear where those fingernails were found or whether they included the one containing DNA.

Cheshire said the accuser identified Evans with "90 percent certainty" during a photo lineup. Cheshire said the accuser told police she would be 100 percent sure if Evans had a mustache something he said his client has never had.

Evans turned himself in after the news conference. Cheshire said he expected his client to be released later Monday.

Evans, who lived at the house where the party was held, was indicted on charges of first-degree forcible rape, sexual offense and kidnapping. In the past, he had been cited for a noise ordinance violation and alcohol possession.

He said that he and his roommates helped police find evidence at the house, and that he gave investigators access to his e-mail and instant messenger accounts. He said that his offer to take a lie-detector test was rejected by authorities, and that he later took one on his own and passed.

"You have all been told some fantastic lies," he said at the news conference.

Evans attended the Landon School, a prep school in suburban Washington, where he also played football and hockey and led the lacrosse team to a three-year record of 56-2. He is one of five members of the Duke lacrosse team to graduate from the Landon School.

"He was an exemplary student and athlete," David M. Armstrong, the school's headmaster, said in a statement. "The allegations coming from Durham today are inconsistent with the character of the young man who attended our school."

After the woman reported the attack, Duke canceled the rest of the lacrosse team's season and accepted the resignation of its coach. Duke President Richard Brodhead initiated a series of investigations, one of which concluded administrators were slow to react to the scandal in part because of initial doubts about the accuser's credibility.

Last week, Evans lost a deal that would have kept him from being charged with old alcohol and noise violations after prosecutors said he had violated the terms of the agreement by hosting the party.

Prosecutors had agreed to deferred prosecution on an August 2005 charge of having an open container of alcohol in a vehicle, and a January charge of violating the city's noise ordinance. The state had agreed to dismiss the charges if Evans completed community service, paid court costs and stayed out of trouble.

A judge reinstated the alcohol charge, Evans' attorney entered a plea on his behalf, and the student was fined $100.

Meanwhile, the alleged victim's parents tell CBS' 48 Hours correspondent Troy Roberts that their daughter has been portrayed unfairly. She has been in seclusion since the alleged incident, has lost weight, developed ulcers and suffers from frequent nightmares, they say.

Her father, Travis, tells Roberts that his daughter's face was "all bruised up under her eyes" when he saw her the day after the alleged attack.

She also told her parents that during the alleged rape, she was assaulted with a broomstick, Roberts reports, though there is no record of this allegation in police documents.

Community activist and writer Cash Michaels tells 48 Hours that the alleged victim says she was told that the party was going to be a bachelor party for five men. When she got to the off campus house, however, she found out that there are 40 members of an athletic team from Duke University.

Defense Attorney Bill Thomas tells Roberts "the accuser in this case is not telling the truth."

Defense attorneys have been attacking the woman's credibility, pointing to another allegation of gang rape she made three years after the fact. The police never followed up on that case.

Her mother says she didn't follow through with the prosecution of the case "because she said they threatened her life" if she pressed charges, referring to the alleged attackers.