On the same day Duke University lacrosse player Collin H. Finnerty was ordered to provide DNA samples in a rape investigation, he was in Washington to face charges that he assaulted a man last fall.

Court records show that Finnerty, 19, and two friends were arrested early Nov. 5. Finnerty was charged with simple assault.

A man told a police officer who was driving by The Georgetown Inn on Wisconsin Avenue about 2:30 a.m. Nov. 5 that Finnerty and his co-defendants assaulted him, court documents said.

The man said he was minding his own business when the three men started picking on him. The man told them to stop "calling him gay and ... derogatory names." Then they attacked him, he said, "busting his lip and bruising his chin," court records say.

The accuser was not anyone that Finnerty knew, said his attorney, Steven J. McCool of Washington...

complaining about why the police waited two days to get a search warrant in the Duke lacrosse player incident

It took two days before police searched the house where a woman said she was raped by Duke University lacrosse players because 31 hours passed before she was able to provide details about what happened, the city manager says. The woman reported within an hour that she had been raped at a March 13 lacrosse team party, according to police. But she couldn't provide a lengthy interview until later, City Manager Patrick Baker said. He told the Durham City Council Thursday that emotional and physical trauma can often delay a witness's ability to tell police what happened. "The basic rule of thumb is that we work at the complaining witness's timetable," he said.

The accuser had worked for an escort company for two months, doing one-on-one dates about three times a week. [snip] This was the first time she had been hired to dance provocatively for a group, she said.

"The basic rule of thumb is that we work at the complaining witness's timetable," he said.

Not acknowledging that their are a significant amount of false rape allegations out there.

We say "innocent until proven guilty" but I really dont think we mean it.

According to Nifong, one of the players called out, "Did you bring any sex toys?" When the women answered no, a man said, "That's OK, we'll just use a broom." Frightened, the strippers ran outside to their car. One of the men followed and coaxed one of the women to come back in. When she did, she told police, she was forced into a bathroom and held down while three men forced her to have sex. According to Nifong, she claimed that the men robbed her and that she broke off several fake fingernails clawing one of her attackers.

There is no suggestion a broom was used.

"one male stated to the women, 'I'm gonna shove this up you,' while holding a broomstick up in the air so they could see it.

Medical records and interviews that were obtained by a subpoena revealed that the vicitm had signs, symptoms and injuries consistent with being raped and sexually assaulted vaginally and anally.

Has anyone taken credit yet for the broom statement or the cotton shirt statement? No? I guess they're probably hoping to see if they can't figure some way out of that.

Attorney Joe Cheshire, who is representing one of the lacrosse captains, said members of the highly ranked lacrosse team hired two dancers for a party on March 13 and paid the women $800 for their services, but that they did not provide the services they promised. "These two girls were paid a tremendous amount of money to dance for two hours," Cheshire said. "We can show, and will show if we have to, that they danced for only three minutes and decided to take all that money with them."

Of course a dancer, escort or stripper can be raped. The defense lawyers never say otherwise. Their argument is that there was a dustup over the money ( they haven't said yet whether it was physical or merely verbal) because the women danced for only a few minutes and left with the players' $800.

it could also well have been one of dozens and dozens of comments made by the guys who's only intent was to make the other guys laugh.

and it's known (medical evidence) that one of the dancers was raped.

For example, use of the term "consistent with" in describing hair and fiber comparisons has been severely criticized as implying a greater degree of certainty to a lay-jury than may be scientifically justifiable . Similar examples can be drawn from other forensic disciplines such as handwriting comparison and bite-mark analysis.

Consistent with merely means it could have been -- it also could not have been.

Now, clearly, at some point the evening stopped being so much fun and, in fact, turned ugly. And if the broomstick comment was made at that time I would consider the comment serious - whether or not the guy who said it actually had any intentions of following through on it

Just moments after she and another exotic dancer started to perform, she said, men in the house started barking racial slurs. The two women, both black, stopped dancing. "We started to cry," she said. "We were so scared."

The victim reported that they began to perform their routine inside of the residence. After a few minutes, the males watching them began to get excited and aggressive. One male stated to the women, 'I'm gonna shove this up you,' while holding a broomstick up in the air so they could see it.

"These two girls were paid a tremendous amount of money to dance for two hours," Cheshire said. "We can show, and will show if we have to, that they danced for only three minutes and decided to take all that money with them."

Agents also seized a poster described as "the shocker" from McFadyen's room

If the DNA evidence shows that she isn't lying. I hope half of you (since half of the people here still seem to actually be liberals and do not assume the woman must be lying) regret the comments you've made. If it is proven untrue, I won't feel guilty. I haven't impugned the honor of the players, I haven't assumed anyone was guilty

REPORTER: Joe Cheshire, (who represents co-captain Dave Evans and other players) said all the players have denied any type of assault, sexual or otherwise. Cheshire said a dispute over money may have led to some of the problems...

CHESHIRE: "but not physical confrontation, but kind of argument about what they were supposed to do, or their dancing, or they got mad and then there was argument about, 'you stolen our money', 'you've done this,' then they left and all of this other stuff has happened. The girls thought the boys were disrespecting them - nothing racial that I've heard at all and they got mad"

To a defense attorney, the statement "I'm gonna shove this up you", viewed in the proper light, is ... um... little help here. IANAL.

"What Nifong has neglected to tell the media is the boy whose actions are in question is a pre-med student who was merely offering the young lady a free pap smear."

A defense attorney representing one of the players said pictures taken at the party contradict the dancer's allegations, the Durham Herald-Sun reported Saturday. The photos show the woman attempting to re-enter the house with "a big smile on her face," attorney Bill Thomas told the paper. Thomas says time-stamped photos show the woman had bruises and cuts on her body when she arrived at the home -- before the rape allegedly occurred. Thomas declined to allow the newspaper to view the photos, but other defense attorneys associated with the case said they might soon make the pictures public, the Herald-Sun reported.

The accuser named her assailants as Matt, Adam and Bret. Adam may have been an alias for Dan. Why is Colin Finnerty's history relevant to anything?

The man said he was minding his own business [at 2:30 a.m.] when the three men started picking on him. The man told them to stop "calling him gay and ... derogatory names." Then they* attacked him, he said, "busting his lip and bruising his chin," court records say.

I don't know anything about Colin Finnerty, I haven't seen his name mentioned before. That's why I asked why he is relevant.

Since college lasts four years, if she was doing lap dances in a strip club four years ago, it seems like she wasn't completely truthful with the reporter. Of course, if she's been a college student and mother all that time, and was merely discussing her employment with the current service, the argument would be weakened or eliminated.

Time-stamped photographs will show an exotic dancer was already injured and "very impaired" when she arrived at a party where she claims she was raped by members of Duke University's men's lacrosse team, an attorney for one of the players said Sunday.

Thomas said some of the photographs, taken when she arrived at the house according to the time stamps, indicate the woman was injured before getting to the party. They show extensive bruises and scrapes on her legs, especially around the knees, he said.

Two sources close to the team, who asked for anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that the e-mail was a reference to a movie called "American Psycho." In the movie, which the sources described as a cult favorite that had been viewed by a number of players on the team, a Wall Street banker goes crazy and kills several women, though possibly only in his dreams. After seeing the e-mail, sent on McFadyen's e-mail account, one of the team members remarked, "I'll bring the Phil Collins music," the sources said. In "American Psycho," the killer delivers a tribute to the music of pop singer Collins as he cavorts with intended victims. The sources suggested that the e-mail was intended as an ironic joke. If so, that may say something about the humor of Duke lacrosse players. College students, and not just athletes, can be astonishingly raunchy and degraded in their recreational behavior. Interestingly, McFadyen was seen at a Take Back the Night rally held by Duke students protesting sexual violence and the alleged rape itself two weeks after the incident.

"Her face was all swollen up, her jaw. She couldn't half walk. One of her legs was hurt," he [father of the accuser] said.

"There is no doubt in my mind, because I've seen the look in her face. I've seen the bruises on her face," the alleged victim's father said.

In the MSNBC interview, the father said his daughter's face was bruised and swollen so badly that she could barely open her eyes, she was scratched and her leg was injured so badly she couldn't get out of the car.

The only four people that I know on the lacrosse team are four of the best, strongest Christians. Most like - least likely people you'd ever see affiliated with something like this.

They have cooperated fully. They have done everything that they've been asked to do - that they categorically deny the allegations. Nothing happened.