DURHAM -- District Attorney Mike Nifong dismissed first-degree rape charges against three former Duke University lacrosse players Friday, but he let stand accusations that they kidnapped an exotic dancer and committed a first-degree sex offense against her during an off-campus party in March.

Nifong had no comment on the development, which caused many legal observers to further question the accuser's already embattled credibility.

In court paperwork, Nifong said the dismissal resulted from an interview that his investigator, Linwood Wilson, conducted with the dancer on Thursday.

The alleged victim told Wilson that "while she initially believed that she had been vaginally penetrated by a male sex organ," she was no longer certain that a penis was used, Nifong wrote.

As a result, "the state is unable to meet its burden of proof with respect to this offense," he said.

Expect the kidnapping and sexual offense charges to be dropped in short order. After all, the rape charges were "the big one". The allegations were that Collin Finnerty, Reade Seligmann and David Evans dragged this woman into the bathroom and raped her -- charges that have been coroberated by virtual no one. Now, even the alleged "victim" admits that no rape occurred, coincidentally just a week after it's proven that DNA from a half a dozen OTHER males -- none of them lacrosse players -- was found on her body and after the lab director admits he conspired with the DA to withold this evidence.

So what we have here apparently, is a crooked DA, a lying "victim", and three young men, guilty until proven innocent, whose names have been dragged through the mud via the national media for the better part of a year now.

These three young men have been beaten to death in the media, the entire lacrosse team was penalized due to these false allegations and the whole situation has been characterized by a wild over-reaction by the liberal Duke University administration that caused the university's reputation to be perhaps permenantly tarnished. Does Nifong expect all of this to just go away with an Emily Litella-like "never mind"? These kids will probably be haunted by these trumped up charges and the circus surrounding them for the rest of their lives. There are still a lot of questions left here not the least of which is; when will someone move to strip this crook of a prosecutor of his license to practice law?