The accuser told police in the town of Creedmoor in 1996 that she was beaten and raped by three men three years earlier. No charges were filed and the case wasn't pursued.
But the man who was married to her for 17 months told The News & Observer in a story published Saturday that she told him a former boyfriend she met while she was in high school would beat her. One day, she said, the boyfriend let his friends have sex with her.
"I wanted them to pay for what they did," the former husband said.
The report filed by Creedmoor police said the men raped and beat the woman for a "continual time."
The former husband said the attack left rope burns on her wrists and cigarette burns on her leg and buttocks.
District Attorney Mike Nifong in Durham said the report had little influence on his case against the two lacrosse players and that a jury may never hear it under a law that excludes a victim's sexual history from court.
Duke lacrosse players Collin Finnerty, 19, and Reade William Seligmann, 20, have been charged with first-degree rape, first-degree sex offense and kidnapping. The accuser was a 27-year-old woman who said she was hired to dance at a party at a house where several lacrosse team members lived.
When the woman went to Creedmoor police a decade ago with the unrelated sexual assault allegations, an officer said it would be difficult to follow up on the case because three years had passed, her former husband said. There is no limit on when rape charges can be filed because the are felonies.
In the Creedmoor police files, the case ends when an officer asked the woman to provide a timeline.
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