STAHL: In your news conference you sounded offended and outraged by this whole thing.</p>
<p>COOPER: When we have a prosecutor who takes advantage of his enormous power and overreaches like this, then yes, it’s offensive, and yes, it’s my duty as the chief law enforcement officer of this state to call him out on it.</p>
<p>STAHL: Now, there’s a difference between a prosecutor who makes mistakes and a prosecutor who sets out deliberately to railroad someone. So are we dealing with a situation where someone was sloppy, or someone was very deliberate and malicious?</p>
<p>COOPER: I do not know what his motives were. Regardless of his motives, the result was wrong. What happened was wrong.</p>
<p>THE CASE RESTED ENTIRELY ON THE WORD OF THE ACCUSER, DESPITE THE FACT THAT SHE CHANGED HER ACCOUNT OF THE ATTACK MORE THAN A DOZEN TIMES. ATTORNEY GENERAL COOPER SAYS HE’S APPALLED THAT NIFONG DIDN’T CHALLENGE HER ABOUT THAT.</p>
<p>COOPER: We can’t see where she was ever asked the tough questions</p>
<p>STAHL: Ever?</p>
<p>COOPER: that specifically contradicted things that she was saying and When our investigators and attorneys started interviewing her again new stories came out that had never been told before that did not fit with the evidence. So, we went in and tried to get all of it rectified and the way it turned out it was much worse than we thought.</p>
<p>STAHL So did she just lie?</p>
<p>COOPER: The people who-- who talked with her-- and these are trained investigators who have been around for a long time a number of them said to me, “I’ve never seen anything like this.”</p>
<p>ONE OF THE THINGS THAT STUNNED THEM WAS THAT THE ACCUSER CAME UP WITH A NEW WILD AND VIVID VERSION OF HER CENTRAL ALLEGATION IN THE CASE, THE ALLEGED ATTACK IN THE BATHROOM. HERE’S WHAT SHE SAID HAPPENED.</p>
<p>COOPER: She was suspended in mid air and was being assaulted by all three of them in the bathroom. And I’ve been in that bathroom. And it was very difficult for me to see how that could have occurred. And then we got another new story–</p>
<p>STAHL: Well, wait. Because-- because it was so small or–COOPER: It was a small bathroom. Yes. And you would’ve had to have four people in there in different positions that she was pres-- describing to us being attacked.</p>
<p>STAHL: Including up in the air?</p>
<p>COOPER: Including being suspended in mid air. It was just difficult for any of us to see how that could have occurred.</p>
<p>COOPER USED THESE VERIFIED TIME-STAMPED PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE PARTY TO PIECE TOGETHER A CHRONOLOGY: FROM THE START OF THE DANCE, TO HER STUMBLING THRU THE ROUTINE?TO WHEN SHE STOPPED. THE ATTORNEY GENERAL SAYS THERE WAS NO OPPORTUNITY FOR THE ATTACK. AND HE SAYS THE ACCUSER ALSO TOLD A NEW STORY ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED OUTSIDE THE HOUSE.</p>
<p>COOPER: She says that Reade Seligmann and David Evans pushed her out onto the back porch. And then all three of them went out and started kicking her and beating her on the back porch. And then there were ten other lacrosse players in the backyard who were assaulting her and pushing her around. And there was absolutely no evidence that any of that had occurred.</p>
<p>LESLEY STAHL: Now, isn’t there a photo of her on that back porch?</p>
<p>COOPER: There is.</p>
<p>IT’S A PHOTO THAT WAS TAKEN AFTER THAT ALLEGED ATTACK AND HE SAYS IT SPEAKS VOLUMES ABOUT THE PLAUSIBILITY OF HER STORY.</p>
<p>COOPER: She was smiling on the back porch. It was a picture that our prosecuting attorneys and investigators said they would’ve had a real hard time explaining to a jury.</p>
<p>SHE ALSO TOLD THE ATTORNEY GENERAL’S OFFICE THAT AT THE VERY END OF THE EVENING, DAVE EVANS AND COLLIN FINNERTY TOOK HER TO HER CAR. COOPER SAYS THAT DIDN’T HAPPEN EITHER.</p>
<p>COOPER We knew, number one, that Collin Finnerty was no longer there because of good, solid testimony. And we also had a picture of her being put in the car by an unindicted Lacrosse player.</p>
<p>HERE’S THE PICTURE AND INDEED, IT’S ANOTHER PLAYER HELPING HER INTO THE CAR: NOT EVANS OR FINNERTY.</p>
<p>LESLEY STAHL: So did you show her the picture?</p>
<p>COOPER: Yes. Yeah, you show her the–</p>
<p>STAHL: And what did she say?</p>
<p>COOPER: Well, I don’t remember what the answer was for that particular picture, but it was usually-- that that picture’s been doctored. Or-- that just can’t be true. Or Duke University paid somebody off.</p>
<p>STAHL: I mean, as you even tell us this, I feel a sense of sadness. Not a sense of outrage in a way about her.</p>
<p>COOPER: All of this was a tragedy because it should have been stopped somewhere along the line. Good prosecutors: we demand them to look hard at the facts, look hard at the law. We also demand them to change their minds if the facts so dictate. Here, these contractions were clearly pointing to the fact that this attack did not occur. And it’s disappointing and really outrageous that it was not stopped sooner.</p>
<p>. . . .</p>
<p>COOPER: the lawyers tried to give him this stuff and he didn’t want to take it.</p>
<p>ROY COOPER: If you’re a prosecutor and the defense attorney is willing to come in and give you information about the case, give you what they have, then you say yes, please come in and let me know what your case is.</p>
<p>STAHL: But we know he said no. What does that say about him as a prosecutor?</p>
<p>COOPER: Well, that was a mistake, clearly a mistake.