Police said the rape allegedly happened after a party at Keohane Dorm on Duke's campus. According to a police report obtained by WRAL, the accuser reported the alleged sexual assault the day after it happened on April 27.
WRAL has learned the end-of-class party in the dorm involved drugs and alcohol use. Based on the accounts of the night posted on the Duke University police Web site, the accuser said a male student who walked her home raped her.
Witnesses told police the accuser left the party with the male student. Duke police questioned that student. Investigators also collected DNA samples from him and the accuser.
WRAL obtained a copy of the search warrant used to seize property from the west campus dorm room of the alleged attacker. Police seized a laptop computer, camera phone, liqueur, clothes and other items.
The student accused in the rape has hired Los Angeles attorney Steve Sitkoff. In a telephone interview with WRAL, he said his client did not commit a crime.
"I am confident that once the Duke police, who I have the utmost confidence in, have completed their investigation, they will come to the exact same conclusion I have come to, and that is my client is 100 percent innocent of these allegations," said Sitkoff.
Based on the Duke University police Web site, the accuser admitted she was drunk and could not provide too many details of what happened leading up to the alleged attack.
This latest investigation comes just days after a stinging report about the drinking culture among Duke students. A committee formed after the Duke lacrosse rape investigation put out the report. It singled out end-of-year parties that involved alcohol.
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