Durham Police Department officers gained access to an Edens Quadrangle residence hall without executing a search warrant late Thursday night and attempted to interview lacrosse players, defense attorney Robert Ekstrand said Sunday.
The officers hoped to confirm which members of the lacrosse team were not at the March 13 party at which three players allegedly gang-raped an exotic dancer, Ekstrand added.
"They cornered a number of [players]," he said of the police. "One young man was interrogated in his room with the door closed, with his roommate having been excused by the police officers."
Ekstrand said to his knowledge the players promptly called their lawyers and did not talk to the police.
The weekend was also marked by confusion about the origin of a suspicious e-mail sent from one of the player's accounts and by defense lawyers preparing for District Attorney Mike Nifong to present his evidence to the Grand Jury as early as Monday.
The e-mail sent from a player's account, which read "sorry guys" in the subject line, contained a brief message:
"I am going to go to the police tomorrow to tell them everything that I know," it said.
Ekstrand said the player denied sending the message-he said he was in class when the time-stamped message went out.
Defense attorneys for the players have speculated that police are attempting to entrap the players.
The DPD has e-mail account information for some team members from earlier in the investigation, Ekstrand said. DPD officials did not respond to requests for comment Sunday.
When officers entered Edens Friday, DPD notified the Duke University Police Department before visiting the residence hall, said John Burness, senior vice president for public affairs and government relations.
He said a DUPD officer was dispatched to accompany the two DPD officers and that the Duke officer let the two uniformed officers into the dorm.
Ekstrand said the police officers gained access to the residence hall by catching the door after a female student swiped her DukeCard and entered the dorm.
He added that the police have been instructed that all of the players have representation and that any communication should go through those attorneys.
"We do not know who they interviewed during the hour and 15 minutes they were in the Edens Residence Hall," Aaron Graves, associate vice president for campus safety and security, said in a statement.
As defense attorneys prepared for the possibility that Nifong might present the case to the Grand Jury as early as Monday morning, some lawyers criticized aspects of the investigation and Nifong's preparedness to seek indictments.
Ekstrand said the police gave him a list of the players they believe were not at the party at 11 p.m. Saturday.
"The list. was woefully incomplete," Ekstrand said. "They are running a serious risk right now if they put those names up and they don't know the answer to that question [of who was absent from the party]."
The defense contends there are no grounds for indictment.
The lawyers cite photographs that depict the alleged victim leaving the house apparently not in distress, a police dispatch call in which a DPD officer said the woman was "passed-out drunk," negative DNA test results and the players' continued denial as examples of the case's shortcomings.
Nifong could not be reached for comment Sunday night. He has not made comments to the media for nearly two weeks.
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