Yesterday, I posted about the stunning claim in a Duke report that the accuser in the lacrosse rape case initially said twenty men raped her. Since then, this claim has come into serious question.

In the initial Durham Herald Sun report from yesterday morning, City Manager Patrick Baker and District Attorney Mike Nifong deny the claim:

City Manager Patrick Baker cast doubt on the report, saying he hadn’t previously heard that anyone in the Police Department questioned the woman’s credibility.

“To the contrary, as I have stated in the past, the Durham Police Department immediately launched a full investigation into these allegations,” Baker wrote in an e-mail. “I am at a loss for why we would go through such an extensive initial investigatory exercise and assign two investigators to work on this case if we thought the allegations were not credible or that the matter was going to blow over.”

…District Attorney Mike Nifong said Monday he had not previously heard that the accuser allegedly changed the number of men she claimed attacked her.

“I hadn’t heard anything about 20 as opposed to three,” Nifong said upon learning of the new Duke report.

“It’s not something I believe to be true,” he added. “Other than that, I wouldn’t specifically have any comment. I haven’t seen the report and have no knowledge of it.”

And today, reports in the News & Observer and the Herald Sun indicate that this information came from a shaky source — a Duke police officer who overheard one side of a Durham police officer’s cell phone conversation. It should therefore be regarded as totally unconfirmed. What a mess…