Judge OKs defense request for paternity testing of Duke lacrosse rape accuser's child
DURHAM, North Carolina: A judge ordered testing Friday to determine whether three Duke University lacrosse players fathered the child of a woman who accuses them of rape — a prospect defense attorneys dismissed as an "absolute impossibility."
News of the accuser's pregnancy comes roughly nine months after the team party where she says she was raped by three white men, but District Attorney District Attorney Mike Nifong said he believed the accuser became pregnant at least two weeks after the party. The accuser is a black woman.
Defense attorney Joseph Cheshire said Friday the defense, which requested the testing, has known for some time about the pregnancy.
A person familiar with the case, speaking to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity, confirmed the pregnancy late Thursday but had no information about the father.
Testimony at a procedural hearing Friday focused on a defense request for more information about DNA testing conducted for the prosecution.
Defense attorneys have stressed for months that no sex occurred at the party and they have cited DNA testing that found genetic material from several males in the accuser's body and her underwear — but none from any member of the lacrosse team.
The woman has said the three men raped her in a bathroom at a March 13 team party where she had been hired to perform as a stripper.
Medical records included in a defense motion filed Thursday were not made public, but Cheshire said the woman was given a pregnancy test immediately after reporting she was raped — and it was negative — and she took an emergency contraceptive.
"The possibility of her having gotten pregnant (from) these alleged incidents is an impossibility ... an absolute impossibility," Cheshire said.
Cheshire spoke shortly before a previously scheduled hearing in the case.
The defense motion claims the woman misidentified her alleged attackers in a photo lineup that was "an incoherent mass of contradiction and error."
Defense lawyers argue that the key lineup, conducted April 4 at the Durham Police Department, violated departmental policies and the defendants' due process rights because it included only pictures of lacrosse players.
Based in part on those identifications, Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty and David Evans were indicted on charges of rape, kidnapping and sexual offense. All three players have insisted they are innocent and were in court for the hearing Friday, as was Mike Pressler, the head lacrosse coach who resigned after the accusation became public.
"Our loyalty to each other remains and my wife and I are here to support the boys," he said.
Defense attorneys asked a judge to bar prosecutors from using the photo lineup at their clients' trial and prevent the accuser from identifying the players from the witness stand.
There had been no prior indication the woman, a 28-year-old college student who has other children, was pregnant. She has not spoken in public since granting a single interview to the News & Observer of Raleigh shortly after the party.
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