City of Durham: Settlement reached in Duke Lacrosse case

DURHAM -- The City of Durham announced Friday a lawsuit involving the former defendants in the Duke Lacrosse case has finally been resolved.

In a press release Friday, the city said after negotiations with the three, it is making a one-time grant in the amount of $50,000 to the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission.

Collin Finnerty, David Evans and Reade Seligman were charged with rape after an exotic dancer, Crystal Mangum, said she was attacked at a party in March 2006.

The charges were dismissed in April 2007 after Attorney General Roy Cooper declared all three men innocent.

The City of Durham reaffirmed Friday that it "fully concurs with the Attorney General's decision to dismiss the charges, and with his conclusion that Mr. Evans, Mr. Seligmann, and Mr. Finnerty were innocent of the charges for which they were indicted."

A civil lawsuit was later filed on behalf of the men against then- Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong, the lab that handled the DNA work, the City of Durham, and several Durham Police Department employees.

The city also noted in Friday's press release that as it maintained throughout the case, "it believes that its police officers had an obligation to investigate the allegations made by Crystal Mangum in 2006 and that no police officer, nor any other city employee, engaged in improper conduct. The former District Attorney, Mike Nifong, was not a city employee, and Mr. Nifong was subsequently convicted of criminal contempt and disbarred for his actions."

Nifong was disbarred in 2007.