updated 2:44 p.m. ET April 30, 2006

DURHAM, N.C. - The district attorney prosecuting two Duke University lacrosse players on rape charges said Friday that a similar complaint brought by the accuser 10 years ago may not be admissible if the Duke case goes to trial — a suggestion disputed by a defense lawyer.

“This woman will have to testify, and it’s valid to ask her if she’s made any false accusations,” said attorney Joe Cheshire, who represents a player who has not been charged. Cheshire said the decade-old report raises “real issues about her credibility.”

According to an old police report uncovered Thursday, the stripper who claims she was raped by three Duke athletes at an off-campus party also told police in nearby Creedmoor in 1996 that three years earlier, she had been raped and beaten by three men when she was 14. None of the three was ever charged with sexual assault.

District Attorney Mike Nifong, who for weeks has avoided commenting publicly on the Duke case, cautioned Friday that a jury might never be allowed to hear about the prior allegations.

North Carolina’s rape shield law lists “narrowly defined categories” under which an accuser’s past sexual history is allowed as evidence, Nifong said. The court must hold a hearing to determine if the evidence meets those categories and to decide how it can be presented, he said.

The rape shield law allows an accuser’s past sexual history to be introduced under the following conditions: if it concerns sex between the accuser and defendant; if it shows the acts charged were not committed by the defendant; if it suggests the accuser granted consent; or if it suggests the accuser fantasized or invented the allegations.

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Arnold Loewy, a criminal law professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said that unless there is reason to believe the woman made a false accusation long ago, the defense may not be allowed to put the information before the jury.

Nifong’s office contacted Creedmoor police Friday morning for information about the incident report, said Mayor Darryl Moss. He and Police Chief Ted Pollard said officials there have been unable to locate any documents related to the case beyond the initial report.

Relatives told Essence magazine in an online story this week that the woman declined to pursue the case out of fear for her safety.

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Lacrosse players Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann are charged with raping the woman, a 27-year-old student at North Carolina Central University. She had been hired to perform as a stripper at a March 13 party.

Kirk Osborn, Seligmann’s lawyer, declined to comment Friday on the earlier rape allegation. Finnerty’s attorney, Bill Cotter, did not immediately return a call.

Earlier this week, Osborn filed a request for the accuser’s medical, legal and education records. He also asked for a hearing to determine if she is credible.

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