Duke Lacrosse Rape Investigation Timeline

By The Associated Press DURHAM, N.C. (AP) – A chronology of events in the case of Duke lacrosse team members accused of raping a dancer hired to perform at a team party. March 13 – Duke University’s lacrosse players throw a team party at an off-campus house, hiring two strippers to perform. March 14 – One of the dancers tells Durham police that three members of the lacrosse team forced her into a bathroom, where they beat her, raped her and sodomized her. March 23 – Forty-six of the team’s 47 members comply with a judge’s order to provide DNA samples and be photographed. The team’s sole black member is not tested because the victim said her attackers were white. March 25 – School announces lacrosse team will not play two scheduled games, citing the team’s decision to hire “private party dancers” and underage drinking at the party. March 28 – Duke suspends lacrosse team from play until it has a “clearer resolution of the legal situation” of involving team members. April 3 – District Attorney Mike Nifong stops granting interviews about the case. April 5 – Lacrosse team coach Mike Pressler resigns and Duke President Richard Brodhead cancels the team’s season after authorities unseal a search warrant containing an e-mail from player Ryan McFadyen in which he says he wants to kill and skin strippers. While the context of the e-mail is not clear, McFadyen is suspended from school. April 10 – Defense attorneys announce that DNA test results find no match between the players tested and the woman accusing the players of rape. April 11 – District Attorney Mike Nifong says he will continue investigating the rape allegations. April 17 – A Durham County grand jury returns sealed indictments against two Duke lacrosse players. April 18 – Duke lacrosse players Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty are taken into custody on charges of rape, sexual offense and kidnapping. Each is released after posting bond of $400,000. Nifong says authorities continue to try to identify a third possible assailant. April 25 – Granville County authorities confirm the accuser told police 10 years ago she was raped by three men when she was 14. None of the men were charged. May 1 – A Duke University committee recommends the school’s lacrosse team resume play next season, but adds the team needs strict monitoring because of a history of problems tied to alcohol. May 2 – Nifong fends off two challengers to win the Democratic primary for district attorney. Because he has no Republican challenger in the fall election, he is all but assured of remaining in office. May 8 – A university report concludes Duke administrators were slow to react to the scandal in part because of initial doubts about the accuser’s credibility. May 12 – Defense attorneys say a second round of DNA testing finds no conclusive match between the accuser and any lacrosse players. May 15 – A grand jury indicts Duke men’s lacrosse team co-captain David Evans. Evans speaks publicly before surrendering to police, saying, “You have all been told some fantastic lies and I look forward to watching them unravel in the weeks to come.”