Duke, ex-lacrosse players reach settlement

Story Highlights

• Duke reaches settlement with former lacrosse players falsely accused of rape
• District Attorney Mike Nifong ordered to leave his duties immediately
• Disciplinary panel said "political ambition" fueled Nifong's drive to prosecute
• All charges were dropped against David Evans, Collin Finnerty, Reade Seligmann

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(CNN) -- Duke University has reached an undisclosed settlement with three former lacrosse players who were falsely accused of rape, the school announced Monday.

"This past year has been hard for many people who care about Duke -- for students, faculty, staff, alumni, families and friends -- and for the three students and their families most of all," the Duke board of trustees said in a written statement.

The three students posted a statement on Duke's Web site saying, "We hope that today's resolution will begin to bring the Duke family back together again, and we look forward to working with the university to develop and implement initiatives that will prevent similar injustices and ensure that the lessons of last year are never forgotten."

David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann were accused of sexually assaulting an escort-service dancer at a party in March 2006.

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper reviewed the case and exonerated the three men in April 2007, saying the charges never should have been brought against them.

District attorney disbarred for unethical behavior

The prosecutor who brought those charges, Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong, was disbarred Saturday by a disciplinary panel that said he violated the majority of at least 19 ethics offenses in prosecuting the case.

A day earlier, Nifong said he would resign from his job regardless of the panel's findings. He planned to leave July 13, but a superior court judge decided late Monday to suspend him immediately, The Associated Press reported. (Full story)

The disciplinary panel agreed that "political ambition" fueled Nifong's drive to prosecute the case.

Two DNA tests found no match between any of the three men and evidence in the case, but Nifong -- who was up for re-election at the time -- pursued the prosecution anyway.

"We had a prosecutor who was faced with a very unusual situation in which the confluence of his self-interest collided with a very volatile mix of race, sex and class," disciplinary committee chairman F. Lane Williamson said.

Evans, Finnerty and Seligmann were charged with first-degree kidnapping and first-degree sexual offense. A charge of first-degree forcible rape was dropped in December after the 28-year-old accuser told prosecutors she could no longer testify that she had been penetrated with a penis, one of the defining factors of rape under North Carolina law.

The panel determined Nifong withheld key DNA evidence from the players' defense attorneys that might have cleared them earlier, and lied to the presiding judge and state bar investigators.

Through his attorney, Nifong said he believed disbarment was the appropriate punishment and would waive all rights of appeal.

The allegations against the three men forced the cancellation of the Duke lacrosse team's season and cost coach Mike Pressler his job. Pressler now coaches lacrosse at Bryant University in Smithfield, Rhode Island.

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