Timeline of Events in Duke Lacrosse 'Rape' Case

A chronology of events in the Duke lacrosse case:

March 13, 2006 — Duke University lacrosse players throw a party at an off-campus house, hiring two strippers.

March 14 — One of the dancers tells Durham, N.C., police she was forced into a bathroom by three men and beaten, raped and sodomized.

March 23 — Forty-six of 47 team members comply with judge's order to provide DNA. The sole black member is not tested, because the accuser said her attackers were white.

March 28 — Duke suspends lacrosse team from play.

March 29 — District Attorney Mike Nifong calls members of the team "a bunch of hooligans."

April 4 — The accuser identifies her attackers in a photo lineup.

April 5 — Lacrosse coach Mike Pressler resigns. Duke President Richard Brodhead cancels the rest of the season.

April 10 — Defense attorneys announce DNA tests fail to connect any of the players to the accuser.

April 17 — Grand jury indicts Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty on rape and other charges.

April 25 — Granville County authorities confirm the accuser told police 10 years ago she was raped by three men when she was 14. None of the men was charged.

May 15 — Grand jury indicts team co-captain David Evans on rape charges. He calls the allegations "fantastic lies."

June 5 — Duke president says team can resume play in 2007 under close monitoring.

Nov. 7 — Nifong wins election to continue as district attorney.

Dec. 15 — Director of a DNA lab testifies that, in an agreement with Nifong, he omitted from a report that genetic material from several men — none of them team members — was found in accuser's underwear and body.

Dec. 22 — Nifong drops the rape charges, saying the woman is no longer certain whether she was penetrated. The players still face charges of kidnapping and sexual offense.

Dec. 28 — North Carolina bar files ethics charges against Nifong, accusing him of making misleading and inflammatory comments to the media about the athletes. (He is also later accused of withholding evidence and lying to the court.)

Jan. 3, 2007 — Duke invites Seligmann and Finnerty to return to school. (They have not returned.) The accuser gives birth. Both sides later say she was not impregnated at the party.

Jan. 12 — Nifong asks to withdraw from case because of ethics charges.

Jan. 13 — North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper takes over the case.

April 11 — Cooper drops all charges, accusing Nifong of overreaching.