Duke Lacrosse rape victim revealed

NBC has obtained exclusive photos that defense lawyers for the Duke University lacrosse players feel will exonerate their clients of rape charges.

Collin Finnerty, 19, and Reade Seligmann, 20, were charged Tuesday with first-degree rape, first-degree sex offense and first-degree kidnapping after a woman said she was raped and beaten at a March 13 lacrosse team party, where she was performing as an exotic dancer.

Dan Abrams, a Duke graduate and former lawyer who now hosts "The Abrams Report" on MSNBC, said he has copies of a series of photos lacrosse team players said they took at the party.

Finnerty appears in none of the photos, Abrams said, which bolsters defense attorneys' claims that the teen wasn't at the party when the alleged rape occurred.

Although Seligmann was in some photos, defense attorneys said the have records from a cab company, ATM receipts and other information with which they can prove he left the party before the alleged rape took place.

The photos help establish a timeline for the events at the party, Abrams said.

Some photos taken before midnight show the players partying before the accuser and another dancer arrived. No photos were taken between 12:10 a.m. and 12:30 a.m., but the dancer is pictured in several shots taken between 12:31 a.m. and 12:41 a.m. in which she was smiling and getting into a car, Abrams said.

"You could argue that something might have happened in that period between 12:10 and 12:30. The defense would say, though, that because she's smiling in the photo taken at 12:31, it would be hard to believe that she had been brutally raped," he said.

Abrams said it was "certainly possible" that the woman had been given a date-rape drug by someone at the party. But he said there has been no evidence to support that claim.

The photos also bolster the defense claims by what they don't show, Abrams said.

The Duke Lacrosse alleged rape scandal has been a major story here at Sports911.com, even prompting one online gambling web site WagerWeb.com (See Web Site Here) to place betting odds on the number of positive DNA results.  There were no positive DNA results as it turns out.

Wagerweb.com paid out even odds on ZERO positive DNAs.

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Sports911.com News Wire

Originally published April 20, 2006 1:19 am EST