Lacrosse Players' Case a Trial for Parents

For the Washington parents, Evans was the hardest to accept. Many had known him from childhood.

They turned on the television as he stood outside the Durham jail and denounced the "fantastic lies" that had been told against him and each one of his teammates. Beside him were several teammates and his parents, David C. Evans, a Washington lawyer and lobbyist, and his mother, Rae F. Evans, a lobbyist and chairwoman of the Ladies Professional Golf Association board of directors.

Rob Bordley, Evans's coach and history teacher from Landon, called Evans's parents to say they had nothing to be ashamed of. "When you come back to Washington, you gotta get back out there," Bordley said. "We are going to be here for you."

Defense Fund

On a muggy Memorial Day, the Walsh house on a quiet cul-de-sac in Bethesda was a clatter of grown children and a grandchild. The family's chocolate Lab lumbered through the chaos. At the front door was a stuffed brown bear, the Landon mascot, a gift from the Evanses years ago, wearing David Evans's old jersey and cap. "We put the hat on him the day David Evans was indicted," Mary Walsh said.

The Walshes and other parents said they felt somewhat vindicated by the release of a Duke-commissioned report last month that found the lacrosse team "academically and athletically responsible students" who performed community service. The report said that team members drank too much and showed poor judgment when under the influence, but their reported conduct had not involved fighting, sexual assault, harassment or racist behavior, and was no different than the "the typical Duke student who abuses alcohol."

A defense fund has been started to pay legal bills that could be in the millions for the three team members facing trials. Parents of non-indicted players already have legal fees exceeding $12,000.

Finnerty has additional troubles. He faces charges in D.C. court that he and two other lacrosse players from other schools jumped a man in Georgetown last fall, shouting anti-gay taunts. The case was to have been dismissed if Finnerty performed community service and stayed out of trouble, but it was reopened after his rape indictment.

Walsh said Finnerty's case has been blown out of proportion in the Duke frenzy. "Look at this kid," he said. "Does he look like a mean kid?"

The victim's lawyer, Chip Royer, bristled at Walsh's comments. "All I'll say is, that as parents, we have an idealized version of our kids and whether they live up to that idealized version can be a disappointment."

Walsh steered the conversation back to the central issue: the innocence of the three young men. He holds no ill will, he said, for the accuser. His anger is toward a district attorney he thinks is using a troubled woman to further a political career.

Wearing his blue and white Duke shorts, Johnny Walsh wandered through the living room. Tall, tan, boyish and friendly, he was packing to leave for a summer internship on Wall Street where he'll earn $14,000. In the fall, he'll return as a senior to Duke to play for his reinstated lacrosse team.

But on this afternoon, it's almost time for the 1 o'clock start of the national championship lacrosse game between the University of Virginia and the University of Massachusetts.

"We should have been there," Johnny Walsh said.