Prosecutors said they expected to charge a third unnamed lacrosse player but couldn't nail down a positive identification.

Defense lawyers predicted their clients would be cleared.

"This is probably the worst miscarriage of justice I've seen in 34 years of practice," said Julian Mack, an attorney for Seligmann.

Finnerty's lawyer, Bill Cotter, cautioned that the grand jury's indictment was not a finding of guilt.

"They hear one side of the story. They almost always indict. The next jury will hear the entire story, which includes our evidence," he said.

They plan to argue the defendants weren't even at the March 13 party when the accuser claims she was violated by three white athletes.

Sources said one defendant was captured on video at a cash machine and the other has receipts from a restaurant during the relevant time period, several news outlets reported.

Evidence in the case has been murky from the start.

On the one hand, authorities have the word of the 27-year-old woman, a single mother who joined the Navy for opportunity and turned to stripping to support two kids after her marriage foundered.

She attends a predominantly black university in her working-class hometown, where the average income is less than the $40,000 in tuition and fees that Duke students shell out a year.

There is a hospital report that says her injuries were "consistent" with rape.

On the other hand, there are defense photos that show her smiling as she left the house, and the report of a cop who found her "passed out drunk" at a grocery store later.

DNA samples were taken from all of the white lacrosse players and none of their genetic material was found on the dancer, lawyers have said.

Instead, it appears Seligmann and Finnerty were arrested after being identified from photographs.

Durham cops and detectives spent 90 minutes searching the players' rooms at Eden Dormitory and emerged carrying bags and boxes filled with evidence.

Signs taped to windows and draped from dorm rooms proclaimed support for the pair.

``I'm 100 percent sure they're both innocent," said Alissa Link, 19, a sophomore. "It seems absolutely crazy. This is scary that this could happen to guys who are really innocent."

Even before Tuesday's developments, the case had profound repercussions.

The Blue Devils' season was canceled and the coach resigned. One player was suspended after he sent a vile e-mail an hour after the alleged rape threatening to skin strippers.

The student, Ryan McFadyen - who attended the same all-boys academy in New Jersey, the Delbarton School, as Seligmann - has not been hit with criminal charges.

Both the accuser and one of her alleged tormentors have criminal records.

She spent three weekends in jail after stealing a car during a drunken escapade in 2002 and leading police on a wild chase.

Finnerty, meanwhile, was arrested last November in Washington after he and two buddies from Chaminade High School on Long Island allegedly pelted a stranger, Jeffrey Bloxgom, with anti-gay slurs and punches.

He agreed to a deal that means a charge of assault will be dropped if he completes 25 hours of community service.

The allegations also have exposed racial and class tensions in Durham.

In a 911 call reportedly made by the other stripper attending the party, the woman claimed the Duke students had yelled a racial slur at her.

And a neighbor, Jason Bissey, said he heard one of the athletes shout at the departing dancers, "Hey, bitch! Thank your grandpa for my nice cotton shirt."

But not everyone has taken sides along racial lines.

The father of Devon Sherwood, the only black player on the team, told the New York Daily News he's happy his son wasn't charged but is worried for the others.

"They had no business being implicated," Chuck Sherwood said from his home in Freeport, L.I. "I want to believe that they are innocent."