Accuser in Duke lacrosse rape case gives birth

Friday, January 05, 2007

(1/5/07 - CHAPEL HILL, NC) -- The cousin of the accuser in the Duke sexual assault case told ABC News that the woman gave birth to a baby girl Wednesday at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill, N.C.

A press release issued by the hospital Thursday afternoon confirmed that the woman was a patient there, but it did not address her medical status.

Separately, the father of the alleged victim in the Duke case and three other sources confirmed to ABC News station WTVD in Durham, N.C., that the woman had the baby Wednesday.

While the identity of the potential father remains a mystery, Nifong has said that "the child was not the product of any activities'' at an off-campus party involving Duke lacrosse players on the night of the March 13, 2006, at which the woman, one of two exotic dancers hired to do a striptease, claimed she'd been raped, sodomized and beaten by members of the lacrosse team.

It has been more than 10 months since the March 13 party, but defense attorneys nevertheless sought and were granted permission last month from the judge in the case to do a paternity test to prove forensically that the father of the child is not a Duke lacrosse player.

Three Duke students -- Colin Finnerty, Reade Seligmann and David Evans -- were indicted last spring on charges of felony rape, kidnapping and sexual assault.

But last month Nifong abruptly dismissed the rape charges after an investigator interviewed the alleged victim and she told him she couldn't be certain she was raped by the legal definition of the term in North Carolina, which defines rape specifically as the penetration of the female sexual organ by the male sexual organ.

Charges of kidnapping and sexual offense remain against the three students.

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