Alumni group backs Duke lacrosse players

DURHAM, N.C., July 28 (UPI) -- A group of Duke University alumni has gone to bat for lacrosse players accused of raping an exotic dancer during a team party at the North Carolina school.

Friends of Duke University took out a full-page ad in the student newspaper urging the university to stand by the accused students.

The case has received national coverage with widespread skepticism about the alleged victim's story.

Duke President Richard Brodhead said in response to the ad that the administration had to distinguish between criminal conduct that has not yet been proved and what the lacrosse team is known to have done -- drinking and hiring two dancers for a team party.