Supreme Court won't hear rights violation claim from falsely accused Duke lacrosse players

The Associated Press
November 12, 2013 at 10:50PM

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court won't hear an appeal from three former Duke University lacrosse players who were among those falsely suspected of raping a stripper.

The players, Ryan McFadyen, Matthew Wilson and Breck Archer, wanted the court to say their constitutional rights were violated by the Durham, N.C., police when officers made the lacrosse team give DNA samples and examined their bodies in an attempt to find evidence to use against them.

All of the charges that were filed in the case were dismissed. The three players who appealed were not among those charged.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said police can use a significantly lower standard than "probable cause" to justify a court order compelling a search and DNA swabs. The high court will not review that decision.

about the writer

about the writer

More from Minnesota Star Tribune

See More
card image
J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE, ASSOCIATED PRESS/The Minnesota Star Tribune

The "winners" have all been Turkeys, no matter the honor's name.

In this photo taken Monday, March 6, 2017, in San Francisco, released confidential files by The University of California of a sexual misconduct case, like this one against UC Santa Cruz Latin Studies professor Hector Perla is shown. Perla was accused of raping a student during a wine-tasting outing in June 2015. Some of the files are so heavily redacted that on many pages no words are visible. Perla is one of 113 UC employees found to have violated the system's sexual misconduct policies in rece