Timeline Of Duke Lacrosse Case & Expert Analyses Of Winners And Losers

A hollow victory for players, string of victimsRaleigh, NC -- A year stolen from the lives of the accused. An accuser humiliated and discredited as the world watched. A prosecutor's career in tatters, an elite university's reputation tarnished. As word spread Wednesday that all remaining charges had been dropped against three Duke lacrosse players accused of sexually assaulting an exotic dancer, there was at least one point beyond dispute: This case was poison for everyone touched by it. "There are no winners here," said Larry Pozner, a defense attorney for 33 years and the former president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. "The landscape is littered with ruined reputations. Tell me who won. Certainly not the complaining witness. Not the school. Not the defendant. Not (District Attorney) Mike Nifong." The roster of potential winners is thin. The legal system, eventually, kept a flimsy case from going to trial, but not before much damage was done. The city of Durham kept calm, but still was portrayed as a place of sharp racial and class differences. A long list of losers will be the legacy of the case. THE PLAYERS. Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty and David Evans no longer face the threat of prison time. But returning to their lives of 13 months ago, before the fateful off-campus party, is out of the question. Evans has graduated while Finnerty and Seligmann, after temporary suspensions, have been invited back to Duke. Finnerty's father told The Associated Press this week that the last year has been "horrific" for his son, who has been doing volunteer work. He is unlikely to return. The three come from well-off suburbs, a fact that played heavily into the class aspects of the case. But their families' legal bills have been estimated as high as $3 million. And though out of legal jeopardy, the players are unlikely ever to be viewed as entirely innocent victims. To some, they'll remain the face of a distasteful jock culture at Duke that, at the very least, hired an exotic dancer for an alcohol-fueled off-campus party. THE ACCUSER. A college student and single mother working as an exotic dancer, she initially attracted widespread sympathy. But her conflicting stories shattered her credibility. North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper said Wednesday she may believe the contradictory accounts she has given, and she will not face charges. "If she can keep herself out of the limelight, she can probably over a period of time regain her ability to live in and among the community," said Woody Vann, a Durham attorney who once represented the accuser. "People have done worse than this." DUKE. The elite university was blasted by some for failing to take the rape allegations seriously enough, then for not sticking up more for the players. Students have moved on, and last year Duke enjoyed record donations and a near-record number of applications. But Duke President Richard Brodhead acknowledged to the AP last month that the university's reputation with the general public has been harmed. On campus, there have been bitter faculty debates over its response to the incident. The case prompted a series of studies of big issues like the athletic culture on campus, but it's unclear what will come of them given the faculty divisions. FORMER LACROSSE COACH MIKE PRESSLER. After its 2006 season was canceled, Duke's lacrosse team is back on the field and ranked No. 4 in the country. But former coach Mike Pressler isn't with them. Pressler had a good reputation around campus for handling the team, and had expressly warned them before spring break last year to behave themselves. But as details of the party and a vulgar e-mail sent by one player after the party emerged, Pressler was forced out. Two goals away from the NCAA title in 2005, he now coaches Division II Bryant College in Rhode Island. DISTRICT ATTORNEY MIKE NIFONG: Before the case, Nifong was a respected lawyer little known outside Durham. Now, he's on the verge of being disbarred, facing ethics charges from the North Carolina State Bar that accuse him of withholding evidence, lying to a court and making inflammatory comments about the players. Cooper sharply criticized Nifong on Wednesday, indirectly referring to him as a "rogue prosecutor." "Why do we have all these ruined reputations?," said Pozner, of the defense lawyers group. "Because a man with enormous power didn't take his time and fairly look at the facts." THE MEDIA. The case had lots of hot-button issues, sex, race, class, sports, an elite university. When it broke, a swarm of reporters and television trucks rushed to Durham and made the city the dateline for a string of sweeping stories about class, race and culture. The players and accuser were viewed less as individuals than as avatars of competing political and cultural agendas. But the case itself proved far more complicated, and few of the stories grasped that Durham was a more complicated place, too. There were racial divisions to be sure, but also a civic tradition that kept people there talking, instead of shouting or fighting, throughout. TimelineMarch 13, 2006 -- Duke 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 three men at the party forced her into a bathroom, where she said she was beaten, raped and sodomized. It is later learned she told authorities several different versions of the alleged attack in the hours after the party.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" involving team members.March 29 -- In an interview with the News Observer of Raleigh, Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong calls the members of the lacrosse team "a bunch of hooligans."April 3 -- Nifong stops granting interviews about the case.April 4 -- The accuser identifies her attackers in a photo lineup suggested by Nifong that included pictures only of team members. The defense later called the lineup "an incoherent mass of contradiction and error."April 5 -- Lacrosse coach Mike Pressler resigns. 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. McFadyen is suspended from school. He later says the e-mail was a joke.April 6 -- The accuser provides investigators with a five-page, handwritten statement detailing the alleged attack.April 10 -- Defense attorneys announce DNA test results find no match between the players tested and the woman accusing the players of rape.April 11 -- 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. Nifong says authorities are continuing 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.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 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."June 5 -- Duke's president reinstates the men's lacrosse program for play in 2007, but under strict rules and close monitoring.June 29 -- McFadyen, an unindicted player, is reinstated at Duke following his suspension for sending the vulgar e-mail about killing strippers.July 21 -- Duke hires John Danowski from Hofstra to coach the lacrosse team. His son, Matt, is a Duke senior and All-American attackman for the Blue Devils.Sept. 4 -- The lacrosse team returns to practice for the first time since March 27, 2006.Oct. 31 -- Nifong insists in an interview with The Associated Press that he and police have not mishandled the case and said his only regret was granting so many interviews early on.Nov. 7 -- Nifong is elected to a four-year term as district attorney, beating out a write-in candidate and an unaffiliated candidate who did not actively campaign.Dec. 15 -- The director of a private DNA lab testifies that, as part of an agreement with Nifong, he omitted from a May report that no genetic material from any member of the lacrosse team was among that of several males found in the accuser's underwear and body.Dec. 21 -- An investigator in Nifong's office interviews the accuser, during which she changes several key details of her account.Dec. 22 -- Nifong drops rape charges against the three players, citing the accuser's statement from the day before in which she said she was no longer certain whether she was penetrated vaginally by a penis, a necessary element of rape charges in North Carolina. The players remain charged with kidnapping and sexual offense.Dec. 28 -- The North Carolina State Bar files ethics charges against Nifong, accusing him of making misleading and inflammatory comments to the media about the athletes under suspicion.Jan. 2, 2007 -- Nifong is sworn into office in a private ceremony.Jan. 3 -- Duke invites Seligmann and Finnerty to return to school as students in good standing, saying the circumstances in the case have changed. The accuser gives birth to a girl at a hospital in Chapel Hill.Jan. 4 -- Former Duke player Kyle Dowd and his parents sue the university, alleging that one of his professors unfairly gave him a failing grade because he was a member of the team.Jan. 10 -- The judge overseeing the case orders a paternity test to determine the father of the accuser's child. Nifong and the defense agree the pregnancy is unrelated to the team party, but both sides agreed the test should be conducted to silence any doubts.Jan. 11 -- Citing a prosecution report, the defense says in court papers the accuser told investigators during the Dec. 21 interview that Seligmann did not commit any sex act on her during the alleged attack, but was repeatedly urged to join in.Jan. 12 -- Nifong asks the state attorney general to appoint a special prosecutor in the case, saying he worries the pending ethics charges against him might result in an unfair trial.Jan. 13 -- State Attorney General Roy Cooper agrees to take over the case. "Agreeing to accept the prosecution of these cases doesn't guarantee a trial, nor does it guarantee a dismissal," Cooper said.Jan. 24 -- The state bar amends its ethics complaint against Nifong, accusing him of withholding evidence from the defense and lying to both to the court and bar investigators.Feb. 24 -- Duke beats Dartmouth 17-11 in its first men's lacrosse game in 11 months.Feb. 28 -- In his response to the state bar's complaint, Nifong says he did not intentionally break ethics rules.March 13 -- The anniversary of team party passes uneventfully in Durham and on campus.March 15 -- With investigators, Cooper tours the house where the lacrosse team threw the party.March 21 -- The state bar sets a June 12 trial date for ethics charges against Nifong.March 25 -- Kirk Osborn, an attorney for Reade Seligmann, dies of a heart attack at age 64.Have Your Say: Share your thoughts about the Duke Lacrosse case click here ./>