Possible DNA Link To Duke Player?

Tissue found under the fingernail of an exotic dancer who claimed she was raped at a Duke University lacrosse party may match a player who was at the party, sources told a North Carolina newspaper Wednesday.

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.

In addition, the newspaper's sources said a male pubic hair had been linked to the case. But no identifiable DNA was obtained from it, the Durham Herald-Sun reports, except that it was determined the hair came from a white man.

In another development, comments made by Durham police questioning the credibility of the alleged victim woman were made during a conversation overheard by a campus officer, officials said Wednesday.

Those comments, which included a judgment the accuser "kept changing her story," led university officials to respond slowly and underestimate the seriousness of the allegations, according to an independent university report released earlier this week.

That independent report did not include any details about how those comments were obtained. When providing that detail Wednesday, Duke police chief Robert Dean said the campus officer who overheard the conversation did not ask the Durham officer any follow up questions.

Aaron Graves, Duke's associate vice president for campus safety and security, said the campus officer did nothing wrong as he "documented what took place that evening from his perspective," including "what he felt or perceived he heard from the Durham police officer."

However, Graves said, "We clearly could have done a better job."

Both Durham's mayor and city manager have objected to the suggestion city officers didn't take the accuser's complaint seriously. The woman, a 27-year-old student at a nearby university, told police she was raped at a March 13 party where she was hired to perform as a stripper.

"The Duke officer got a snapshot of the conversation. He didn't have the context of the conversation," said Patrick Baker, the city manager. "Everything that the Durham Police Department has done has been consistent with taking the allegation of a sexual assault seriously."

A campus police operations report filed March 14 states that the accuser, who is black, initially said she was raped by 20 white men. It goes on to say she changed her story several times, and that "Durham Police state that charges would not exceed misdemeanor simple assault."

"I think it's important to understand that this initial report was a preliminary report," Graves said. "This was not the conclusion of the entire investigation."

The independent Duke report concluded the comments about the accuser's credibility shaped Duke's thinking, and that was a "major mistake." The issue of the accuser's credibility has been raised by defense attorneys, who have asked the court to hold a hearing on her reliability.