Duke Students On Life After Indictment
When Duke University lacrosse player David Evans and his family attended his graduation ceremony last May, so did the news media. Evans had gotten word that he would be indicted, and so did a host of photographers.
"When I wanted to walk and get my diploma with all my friends, I couldn't," Evans said. "My dad had to go get it, 'cause there were so many in the press who knew I was gonna be indicted the next day, they wanted a picture of me with my diploma, and I never got to get it."
It wasn't just Evans' graduation; it was also Mother's Day.
"This should have been one of the greatest days in my mom's life, the culmination of … 23 years of schooling, all this work, she couldn't experience that," Evans told 60 Minutes correspondent Ed Bradley.
Evans says he didn't walk on graduation day because he didn't want to give the media the satisfaction of having another photograph of him.
Fellow accused lacrosse player Reade Seligmann, 20, says his experience with Duke since his indictment hasn't just been tainted, it has been ruined.
"I chose Duke to be my home for four years. And to see your professors … go out and slander you and say these horrible, untrue things about you and to have your … administration just … cut us lose for, for, based on nothing," Seligmann said. "Duke took that stance that 'We wouldn't stand for this behavior.' They didn't want to take a chance on standing up for the truth."
Seligmann says he isn't sure he'd return to Duke.
Read the original "60 Minutes" transcript.
Watch newly released portions of the CBS exclusive interviews."I can't imagine representing a school that didn't want to represent me," Seligmann said. "Couldn't imagine."
The third accused lacrosse player, Collin Finnerty, 19, says his life has been profoundly altered by the rape accusation.
"The whole process takes a lot out of you. Going on trial for something you never did is very frightening. And I think about it all the time," Finnerty said.
Evans, the oldest of the accused at 23 years old, served as a team captain and lived at the house where the alleged rape took place. He's had five months to think about the decisions he made surrounding the party, for which they hired two dancers from an escort service.
"I was naïve. I was young," Evans said. "I was sheltered and I made a terrible judgment — my greatest failure as a leader. In five months, I've learned more than I did in 22 years about life and responsibility, and everything that it means.
"Even the smallest action has great consequences, and even the ones that you take for granted every day that just might be a little bit wrong can lead to terrible, terrible things."
As for his relationship with Duke, Seligmann says: "It wasn't convenient for them to stand up to the truth. And, you know, I can't forgive them for that."