Duke Rape Accuser Pregnant

RALEIGH, N.C. --The woman at the center of the Duke lacrosse rape case is pregnant and due to give birth any day, roughly nine months after the team party where she says she was raped by three men in a bathroom.

The pregnancy was confirmed late Thursday by a person familiar with the case, speaking to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity. Both Fox News and WRAL-TV in Raleigh reported she gave birth Thursday night.

There had been no prior indication the woman, a 28-year-old college student who already has children, was even pregnant. She has not spoken in public since granting a single interview to the News & Observer of Raleigh shortly after the party.

The person who confirmed the pregnancy to the AP had no information about the father. Defense attorneys have stressed for months that no sex occurred at the party and they have cited DNA testing that found genetic material from several males in the accuser's body and her underwear -- but none from any member of the lacrosse team.

Calls to attorneys representing the three indicted players were not returned Thursday night. Nor were calls and messages left with District Attorney Mike Nifong.

Medical records included in a defense motion filed Thursday were not made public. It wasn't clear whether a pregnancy test was taken immediately after the party.

The development came just hours after defense attorneys filed a motion saying the woman misidentified her alleged attackers in a photo lineup that was "an incoherent mass of contradiction and error." The attorneys asked a judge to bar prosecutors from using the photo lineup at their clients' trial and prevent the accuser from identifying the players from the witness stand.

Duke University law professor James E. Coleman Jr. said the case would be "effectively dismissed" if the court finds the lineup inadmissible "and rules that it is so suggestive that there can't be an in-court identification."

Within Thursday's motion, the defense highlighted what it considers numerous holes in the accuser's story.

Among the details cited are examples of how the accuser's story changed in the hours and days after the party; that she has a history of bipolar disorder; that she identified two people as having attended the party who were not there; and that she identified four attackers during the April photo lineup.

As reported by ABC News:

A new video of one of the most critical and controversial aspects of the Duke rape case — how the accuser picked three Duke lacrosse players out of a lineup — has emerged, and defense lawyers want the lineup identification thrown out of the case.

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In the video, taped on April 4, 2006, the 27-year-old African-American woman studies photos of the white Duke lacrosse team members.

She then points to a picture and says, "He looks like one of the guys who assaulted me."

The woman identifies three players who she says sexually assaulted her at an off-campus party in March.

Only Lacrosse Players in Lineup

Defense attorneys have been pushing the judge to toss out this crucial part of the prosecution's case, saying it was fundamentally flawed because the alleged victim was only shown pictures of lacrosse players.

"There should have been people mixed in there who you knew clearly were not at the party, so that if the witness were to have picked one of them, you would know instantly that there's a credibility problem," said Gary Wells of the American Psychology and Law Society.

Prosecutors, however, have stood by the lineup and have proceeded with their case against the three players.

In the video, the woman identifies Evans.

When she sees his photo, she tells police, "He looks just like him without the mustache."

Evans' attorney says the photo shows him clean shaven the day before the party.

In the video, police ask the accuser how sure she is that Evans is one of the attackers.

"About 90 percent," she says in the video.

The alleged victim then identifies Seligmann, telling police she's 100 percent certain about him.

"He was the one that was standing in front of me," she says.

Finally, she says — with 100-percent certainty — that Finnerty was one of the attackers.

"He's the guy who assaulted me," she says.

The video emerges as another hearing in the case is scheduled today, and as defense attorneys argue that the DNA found on the alleged victim's underwear does not match any member of the Duke lacrosse team.

Combine this with Lawhawk's earlier posting regarding the DNA evidence and this case gets flimsier and flimsier. Mistakes in the lineup, no DNA evidence, changed stories. I would not want to prosecute this case.

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