Defense to ask for paternity testing of Duke lacrosse rape accuser's child

Friday, December 15th 2006, 6:22 am

By: News On 6

DURHAM, N.C. (AP) _ Lawyers for three Duke lacrosse players charged with rape will ask for paternity testing to determine if any of their clients fathered the accuser's child _ a prospect the attorneys dismissed Friday as an ``absolute impossibility.''

News of the accuser's pregnancy comes roughly nine months after the team party where she says she was raped by three men.

Defense attorney Joseph Cheshire said Friday the defense has known for some time about the pregnancy. Fox News and WRAL-TV in Raleigh reported the woman gave birth Thursday night. ``We've also heard that she didn't,'' Cheshire said.

A person familiar with the case, speaking to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity, confirmed the pregnancy late Thursday but had no information about the father.

During a break Friday in a procedural hearing, District Attorney Mike Nifong would not comment about the pregnancy and declined to answer questions about potential paternity testing. Early testimony at the hearing focused on a defense request for more information about DNA testing conducted for the prosecution.

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.

The woman has said the three men raped her in a bathroom at a March 13 team party where she had been hired to perform as a stripper.

Medical records included in a defense motion filed Thursday were not made public, but Cheshire said the woman was given a pregnancy test immediately after reporting she was raped _ and it was negative _ and she took an emergency contraceptive.

``The possibility of her having gotten pregnant (from) these alleged incidents is an impossibility ... an absolute impossibility,'' Cheshire said.

Cheshire spoke shortly before a previously scheduled hearing in the case.

The defense motion claims the woman misidentified her alleged attackers in a photo lineup that was ``an incoherent mass of contradiction and error.''

Defense lawyers argue that the key lineup, conducted April 4 at the Durham Police Department, violated departmental policies and the defendants' due process rights because it included only pictures of lacrosse players.

Based in part on those identifications, Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty and David Evans were indicted on charges of rape, kidnapping and sexual offense. All three players have insisted they are innocent and were in court for the hearing Friday.

The defense 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.

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