I hope they strip the bastard

RALEIGH, North Carolina (AP) -- Reade Seligmann, one of three Duke lacrosse players falsely accused of raping a stripper at a team party, said Friday he and his teammates didn't hesitate to give investigators DNA samples. They believed it would be the quickest way to clear their names, he said.

"I was more than happy to give DNA," Seligmann testified during the third day of Nifong's ethics trial. "We went from being viewed as athletes to being viewed as rapists."

The DNA tests failed to show any physical contact between the accuser and members of the lacrosse team, but Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong still pressed ahead with the case and sought indictments against Seligmann, Collin Finnerty and Dave Evans.

The three men were eventually cleared by the state attorney general, Roy Cooper, who concluded they were "innocent" victims of a rogue prosecutor's "tragic rush to accuse."

The North Carolina State Bar charged Nifong with violating the state's rules of professional conduct, alleging he withheld the DNA test results from the players' defense attorneys. If convicted by a disciplinary committee, Nifong could be stripped of his license to practice law in the state.

Seligmann broke into tears as he described how his attorney got a call from Nifong notifying him of the indictment. He said the attorney glanced his way and said, "She picked you."

"My dad just fell to the floor, and I just sat on the ground," Seligmann said. "And I said, 'My life is over.' ... The first thing I thought about was, 'How am I going to tell my Mom."

"Right away, my Dad says we have to start putting together alibi information. We never thought it was going to be me, so we never thought about it," Seligmann said.

His attorneys quickly pulled together ATM receipts, cell phone records, time-stamped photos and the testimony of the cab driver who took Seligmann home the night of the March 2006 party where the woman, hired as a stripper, said she had been attacked.

State bar prosecutors walked Seligmann through the details of the alibi, which he said Nifong wasn't interested in discussing.

"I just felt helpless at that point," Seligmann said. "I don't know much about the law, but you hear the word alibi, and you think that's one of the first things a prosecutor would want to have. You don't charge an innocent person. I could never understand it."