Fear. Frustration. Anger. Those were the emotions that former Duke lacrosse player David Evans described enduring over the past year, as he and two teammates faced charges of the rape and kidnapping of an exotic dancer.
Evans and his teammates, Reid Seligmann and Collin Finnerty, could finally put those emotions behind them. All charges against them were dropped on April 11 by North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper.
Evans, 24, spoke in front of media in Raleigh, N.C, his hands gripping the podium tightly and his voice shaking. Evans’s family stood behind him, his mother wiping tears from her eyes as her son spoke.
“It’s been 395 days since this nightmare began. And finally today it’s coming to a closure,” said Evans at the press conference. “We’re just as innocent today as we were back then. Nothing has changed. The facts don’t change.”
Cooper also attacked the manner in which “rogue” District Attorney Mike Nifong carried out the investigation.
“We believe that these cases were the tragic result of a rush to accuse and a failure to verify serious allegations,” Cooper said in a statement.”
Cooper had previously removed Nifong from the case after the state bar charged him with ethics violations in January. Nifong now faces disbarment and possibly a lawsuit. He apologized to players after the charges were lifted.
But the damage is already done to the reputations of the players, Duke University and the sport of lacrosse.
After the indictments were handed out last spring, Duke suspended the remainder of its lacrosse season and both Seligmann, 20, and Finnerty, 21. Evans graduated the day before receiving his indictment in May.
Seligmann and Finnerty were invited to return to Duke this year but declined.
The program was reinstated this fall, but with a new coach, after Mike Pressler stepped down in April 2006. He is now head coach at Bryant University.
Fairfield’s head coach for the men’s team, Ted Spencer, expressed sympathy for the three players.
“The proof shows that a lot of people were wrong and that the investigation was handled poorly,” Spencer said. “It’s a tragedy that the kids lost a good part of their lives.”
Spencer said that while the scandal may have brought a black eye to the sport of lacrosse, it has now made the game more visible nationwide, as people want to see how the Duke players are doing.
Spencer said it is his role to ensure that his players do not get into the same situation as the Duke players.
“It is my responsibility to my players that something like that doesn’t happen,” Spencer said. “Through education, reinforcing doing the right thing.”
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