That Night at Duke

Standing in his living room, Evans was worried that the cops would show up. The commotion was enough to disturb the neighbors. Evans had recently been cited for a noise violation; the Durham police were trying to crack down on rowdy parties that sometimes spilled out of the houses rented by teams and fraternities on the edge of campus.

One of Evans's teammates suggested taking back the money from the accuser. Evans told the teammate he was "stupid," and was worried that the man who dropped her off probably had a gun "and would kill us," according to his statement to police.

Trying to find some way to end the disastrous evening, one of the co-captains, Flannery, slipped $100 under the bathroom door in an effort to get the women to come out and go away. The women emerged, but the accuser, half-dressed and yelling, began wandering around the yard. Meanwhile, one of the players took some of the dance money she'd left behind in her inebriated state. Evans, by his own account increasingly agitated, demanded the money be returned.

Shortly before 1 o'clock, the two women finally did leave, amid a flurry of taunts. Roberts called the players "short d--k white boys," according to several defense attorneys. ("She did admit to saying that," says Simeon.) One player shouted back, "We asked for whites, not n-----s." Roberts yelled, "That's a racial slur, a hate crime," as she drove off with the other dancer slumped inside.

Evans, who had been on the phone to his girlfriend, hung up when he heard Roberts's last comment. Shooing some freshmen away, he retreated to a neighboring house rented by other players. He was worried about the police showing up and citing him for another noise (or public-drinking) violation. He had no idea.

The storm gathered slowly. Knowing they had nothing to hide, the three captains gave statements to the police the day after the party and volunteered to take lie-detector tests (the police turned them down). All 47 players, minus the team's one black player, who was never implicated, gave cheek swabs for DNA. Unknown to the players, the accuser was claiming, in vivid if changing and confusing detail, that she had been throttled and sexually assaulted at the Duke lacrosse party. The prosecutor, Mike Nifong, who was running for re-election in Durham, which is 40 percent black, began talking to reporters. He said he had "no doubt" that a sexual assault had taken place, called the players "hooligans" and accused them of stonewalling.