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RALEIGH, N.C. - A second round of DNA testing in the Duke University lacrosse rape case showed no conclusive match to any member of the team, defense attorneys said Friday.
Attorney Joseph Cheshire, who represents a team captain who has not been charged, said the tests showed genetic material from a "single male source" was found on a vaginal swab taken from the accuser, but that material did not match any of the players.
"In other words, it appears this woman had sex with a male," Cheshire said. "It also appears with certainty it wasn't a Duke lacrosse player."
Cheshire said the testing did find some genetic material from several people on a plastic fingernail found in a bathroom trash can of the house where the team held the March 13 party. He said some of that material had the "same characteristics" - a link short of a conclusive match - to some of the players, but not the two who have been charged with rape, kidnapping and sexual assault.
Two members of the team have been charged with raping a stripper hired to perform at a March 13 team party. Defense attorneys representing the defendants did not return calls seeking comment.
The dancer, a 27-year-old black student at nearby North Carolina Central University, told police she was raped and beaten for a half-hour by three white men at the party. A grand jury has indicted Reade Seligmann of Essex Fells, N.J., and Collin Finnerty of Garden City, N.Y., on charges of rape, kidnapping and sexual assault.
Defense attorneys have repeatedly said that all the players are innocent, pointing to an initial round of DNA tests that found no match between the 46 players and the accuser.
New Orleans floodgates not ready yet, corps says
NEW ORLEANS - Massive floodgates designed to better protect the heart of New Orleans from the type of storm surges that breached levees during Hurricane Katrina may not be installed until July, more than a month after hurricane season starts, a top Army official said Friday.
But large storms are rare before August, and the Army Corps of Engineers said it has a plan to reinforce the levees if another major storm threatens any earlier than that.
The corps is installing the floodgates to protect weakened levees along three major drainage canals that channel rainfall from city streets into Lake Pontchartrain.
During Katrina, the storm surge caused the lake to rise by more than 7 feet and exerted pressure on the levees, which gave way, inundating large parts of the city.