Duke University issued the following statement on Dec. 18 in response to a lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court:

“This lawsuit is another unfortunate result of the misdeeds of former Durham County prosecutor, Mike Nifong, and the Durham police. However, this suit is misdirected against the university. Duke University reasonably relied on the statements of a prosecutor whose path of destruction could be stopped only by the North Carolina Attorney General.

“Duke made some mistakes when the allegations first surfaced in the spring of 2006. The cause of any harm felt by the players, however, clearly lies with parties other than Duke. Nevertheless, to avoid putting the entire community through destructive litigation, the university offered many months ago to reimburse the attorneys' fees and other out-of-pocket expenses of the players whose lives were disrupted but who were not indicted. We were and remain disappointed those offers were not accepted. We will aggressively defend the university in this matter.”