Alleged Duke Rape Victim Pregnant

Dec. 15, 2006 — -- The alleged victim in the Duke rape case is expected to give birth in the first week of February, Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong said in court today, adding that "the child was not the product of any activities'' from the night of the infamous Duke lacrosse team's party.

Nevertheless, attorneys for accused players Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty and David Evans, who took issue with the coincidental pregnancy's effect on their defense, sought and were granted permission from a judge to get a paternity test.

It has been more than nine months and three weeks since the March 14 party at which the woman said the three men raped her.

Meanwhile, the director of a private DNA lab testified that he and the district attorney agreed not to report information helpful to the defense team. He cited several different reasons, and acknowledged under cross-examination that he violated his own lab's standards.

Lab director Brian Meehan found genetic material from several men -- though none of them were Duke lacrosse players -- in samples taken from the body of the accuser the night she said she was allegedly gang-raped.

Meehan said he did not report the information out of concern for the lacrosse players' privacy, and later said he did not report the findings because he did not know the identity of the men whose DNA was found.

The pregnancy admission capped a week that saw defense attorneys file a series of damning motions in which they accused the prosecution's DNA lab of withholding vital information, argued that the photo line-up in which their clients were identified was fatally flawed, and insisted that Durham, N.C., has been so "torn apart'' by the case that the three defendants cannot get a fair trial.

The alleged victim's pregnancy came to light today as the three defendants and their parents went to court for a hearing on defense charges that the lab that tested DNA for the district attorney's office withheld information that could be favorable to the defense.