Duke Lacrosse Lawyers Cite Photo Timeline

April 15, 2006 — -- Lawyers for lacrosse players at Duke University swept up amid allegations of rape have shown the local newspaper a timeline of photographs that they claim proves the accuser actually was manicuring her nails at the only time the rape could have occurred.

The Duhram Herald-Sun did not publish the actual photographs taken by students at the house where the assault is alleged to have occurred, but Robert Ashley, the editor of the paper, said they were dramatic.

"The photos appear to show somebody who was lying down and incapacitated," Ashley said. "And again, intoxication was included in the original police reports."

The accuser, a student at a nearby college who was hired as an exotic dancer for a party at the house, says she was raped. The district attorney says he believes a crime was committed.

Defense lawyers are outraged that Durham police tried to interview lacrosse players on campus two nights ago without their attorneys present.

The players' lawyers add that a police recording of an officer who was at the accuser's side casts doubt on her story.

"She's breathing, appears to be fine," the officer says on the tape. "She's not in distress. She's just passed out drunk."

Tensions in the community are simmering. Racist graffiti has been found on the nearby, historically black North Carolina Central University campus where the 27-year-old accuser goes to school.

Lacrosse team members and powerful alumni are trying to do damage control, and have hired powerful Washington lawyer Bob Bennett, who also defended President Clinton.

'A Lot of Rumors'

The issue of guilt or innocence may hang over the campus -- but Amanda Boston, an African-American student visiting the Duke campus after being accepted there, seemed to take the controversy in stride.

"Everybody's been really, really friendly," she said, "a lot more friendly than they are in Brooklyn, so I'm not worried about race relations."

Durham officials have tried to tamp down speculation and anxiety over the case.

"It's not boiling over," Durham Mayor William Bell warned "Good Morning America Weekend Edition." "Duhram has a lot of patience, a lot of tolerance. … People have concerns, but we're prepared to let the legal process follow its course."

Bell insisted, "We aren't going to try the case in the media.

"You're getting a lot hearsay, a lot of rumors," he added. "But where the rubber meets the road is in the courts."

ABC News' Mike von Fremd reported this story for "Good Morning America Weekend Edition" and "World News Tonight."