Prosecutors dropped rape charges Friday against three Duke University lacrosse players accused of attacking a student hired to strip at a party, but the three still face kidnapping and sexual offence charges.

Defence lawyer Joseph Cheshire said that the accuser now says she does not know if she was penetrated. That, Cheshire said, led District Attorney Mike Nifong to dismiss the rape charges.

Nifong did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

Nifong had previously said he could rely on the woman's account because of a lack of DNA evidence against the players.

Lacking any "scientific or other evidence independent of the victim's testimony" to corroborate that aspect of the case, Nifong wrote, "the state is unable to meet its burden of proof with respect to this offence."

"He has said to you his case rises and falls on the statements of the accuser," Cheshire said of the district attorney. "He gets yet again a different story from her, which disputes and goes against the other stories she has told."

The accuser, a 28-year-old student at North Carolina Central University, has said three men raped her in a bathroom at a March 13 team party where she was hired to perform as a stripper.

The players — Dave Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann — all say they are innocent. Their lawyers have consistently said no sex occurred at the party and have cited a lack of DNA evidence in the case as proof of their clients' innocence.

"It's highly coincidental," Cheshire said, that the charges are being dropped a week after the director of a private DNA testing lab acknowledged that he initially, with Nifong's knowledge, withheld from the defence test results showing none of the players' DNA was found on or in the accuser's body.

Testing also showed that genetic material from several other males was found in her undergarments and body.

Both rape and sexual offence carry the same possible sentence of up to 40 years in prison, while kidnapping is a lesser felony punishable by up to 17½ years behind bars.

Defence attorneys have said for months that the woman has told
several different versions of the alleged assault, and Seligmann's
attorney has said she has given investigators at least a dozen
different versions of the alleged attack.

The defence also has argued that the woman misidentified her
alleged attackers in a photo lineup, and they have asked the judge
to prevent the accuser from identifying the players from the
witness stand.