Nearly 40 unindicted members of the 2005-2006 men's lacrosse team filed suit Thursday against the University and 28 other defendants, lodging 31 counts of grievances related to the pursuit of false rape charges in 2006.
The 237-page suit was formally announced at a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., by attorney Charles Cooper Thursday afternoon. Although a number of media outlets preempted the legal action with stories Wednesday, the suit was not officially filed until late Thursday evening.
Thirty-eight of the 47 members of the 2006 team are plaintiffs in the suit, leaving only three former players-graduate student Matt Danowski, Trinity '07, senior Kevin Mayer and Matt Zash, Trinity '06-who have not engaged in any litigation. There are 47 plaintiffs listed in the filing including nine parents and 20 current Duke students.
"The players and their families take this historic action with great reluctance," Cooper said. "They remain united in their determination to insist on the full truth and an accountability from Duke. This lawsuit is borne out of Duke and Durham's sustained wrongdoing and callous conduct against the players."
The suit seeks unspecified damages for emotional distress, fraud, negligence and other injuries pursued by Duke, Durham and their officials.
Steve Henkelman, father of Erik Henkelman, Pratt '06, said he felt the University's response was inexcusable.
"Duke was in a damage control mode," he said at the press conference. "They were willing to sacrifice a few-our sons-for the good of the institution."
Pam Bernard, vice president and University counsel, however, said the suit was misdirected at Duke.
"We have now seen the lawsuit and as we said before, if these plaintiffs have a complaint, it is with [former Durham district attorney Mike] Nifong," Bernard said in a statement. "Their legal strategy-attacking Duke-is misdirected and without merit. To help these families move on, Duke offered to cover the cost of any attorneys' fees or other out-of-pocket expenses, but they rejected this offer. We will vigorously defend the University against these claims."
Law professor Thomas Metzloff said he thought it was significant that individual faculty members were not named.
"With the actions of some faculty and how they were interpreted, I think some people were expecting individual faculty to be named as defendants," he said. "It's kind of the old move to cast a blanket-at this point, it's the usual suspects."
He said it was also surprising that Nifong was not included because his bankruptcy proceedings do not bar him from being listed as a defendant. Metzloff added that this might be a move to highlight other defendants' involvement.
"So much of the injury and damage... is the direct result of Nifong's actions," Metzloff said. "By not naming him, perhaps they're trying to get more focus on what they think happened."
This is the third lawsuit in three months to be filed against the University stemming from the 2005 rape case, and the third lawsuit in the past year to be filed by members of the team.
Wrongly-indicted former players Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty and Dave Evans, Trinity '06, settled with the University for an undisclosed amount in June, 2007, after filing suit. In December of the same year, a 379-page lawsuit was filed against the University and others by three unindicted players, senior Ryan McFadyen, Matt Wilson, Trinity '06, and Breck Archer. Former coach Mike Pressler filed charges of slander against Duke in January.
The suit on behalf of the first unindicted group was filed by Robert Ekstrand, Law '98 and a lecturing fellow at the School of Law, who said he had been in contact with Cooper previously.
"We were pleased that they've looked at the case and found that the case to put forward is nearly identical to ours," Ekstrand said.
Although Cooper mentioned in the conference that the three cases would likely be tried together, it will be left to a judge to determine when the cases go to trial.
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