Lawyers: Photos Clear Duke Players
Defense attorneys told CBS News correspondent Trish Regan that they expect charges to be filed against two players as early as today in the case of a black stripper who alleges she was raped by three white men at a party thrown by Duke's lacrosse team.
Regan reports that the attorneys say they have no idea who those players are, so they're preparing bond hearings for all 46.
Regan met with defense attorneys who showed her time-stamped photographs taken at the lacrosse party where the alleged rape occurred. She saw 23 photos in all, which attorneys say prove their clients' innocence, in part, because they show that the woman was already bruised and cut when she arrived at the house. Because of the cuts, they say if a rape took place, her DNA should have been discovered.
The pictures begin at 11:02:36. There's a photo of the lacrosse players sitting in the living room.
According to a neighbor's testimony, the alleged victim arrived at the players' house around 11:50p.m.
At midnight (12:00:12) there is the first picture of the alleged victim. She is laying down on the floor, partly clothed, with the second dancer standing over her. Regan reports that she could see what appeared to be sores, or small open wounds on both of her knees, and bruises, and a blister on her right foot.
At 12:03:57, the girls appeared to be leaving the room, Regan reports. The defense says they had finished dancing, and her right shoe was on the floor.
A neighbor says he saw the alleged victim in the front yard some time between 12:20 and 12:30.
The next photo Regan saw of the alleged victim was taken at 12:30:12. The woman was on the back porch. In a photo reportedly taken less than a minute later, she's seen with only one shoe and seemed to be smiling.
In a photo taken at 12:37:58 the alleged victim is lying down. It looks like she fell, Regan reports. According to Regan, there appear to be new bruises on her backside and scratches on her legs. In another set of photos, taken immediately after the fall, there are pink splotches on the stair railing. The defense believes those splotches are from nail polish. When the alleged victim fell, her freshly painted nails hit the railing, attorneys say.
A photo with the time code 12:41:32 shows the alleged victim being helped into a car apparently before leaving the property.
However, CBS News legal analyst Wendy Murphy tells The Early Show co-anchor Rene Syler that "if you really look at the photographs, they provide a 27-minute gap, which is exactly the amount of time the victim says she was in the bathroom being raped by three of these guys."
Regan reports that the defense, however, argues the woman was painting her nails in the bathroom during that period.
The second dancer, who authorities said in court documents was separated from the woman before the alleged attack, told WNCN-TV in Raleigh in an interview airing late Sunday that the other dancer was "definitely under some sort of substance" when she left the party.
She said the alleged victim looked fine when she arrived at the party, but her demeanor changed dramatically later in the night. "She was, um, definitely a totally different woman than she was when I first met her," she told the station.
The woman, whose identity was not revealed, said she doesn't believe Durham authorities would be investigating if no crime had occurred.
For the district attorney to get an indictment, "all you really need in a rape case is the word of the victim," Murphy tells The Early Show. "If she can say she was raped and identify her assailant, that's enough. If the jury believes her, that's sufficient for a conviction ... about 80 percent of rape cases involve no DNA evidence whatsoever."
While defense attorneys have said that DNA testing failed to connect any members of the lacrosse team to the alleged rape, Murphy said: "Let's not forget, there was some DNA found at the scene, on the floor of the bathroom, on a towel in the bathroom, according to the defense attorneys it matched two of the guys on the team, two of the guys who live there. So you can bet that that is going to play a role.
"It doesn't necessarily prove a rape, but it sure goes far to prove that two men were in that bathroom at some point doing something."
Meanwhile, the Rev. Jesse Jackson says his Operation Push organization will pay the college tuition of the alleged victim.
On Sunday, a bishop who led a prayer rally called for healing in the community inflamed by racial tensions.
"This is not a racial protest," said Bishop John Bennett told more than 100 people gathered in front of the house where the woman told police she was assaulted. "It should not be a question of 'Where are the Afro-American churches?' The question should be, 'Where are the Christians?' "