'A member of the Duke University lacrosse team was charged last fall with assaulting a man in the Georgetown section of Washington.

Collin Finnerty, 19, of Garden City, N.Y., is one of the 46 members on the 47-man lacrosse team who submitted DNA samples two weeks ago in a rape investigation here that has rattled the community and brought increased scrutiny of the players.

...He and two of his teammates from high school lacrosse were arrested on Nov. 5 in Washington. At 2:30 a.m. that day, Jeffrey O. Bloxgom told the police that the men had "punched him in the face and body, because he told them to stop calling him gay and other derogatory names," according to records at the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.

Bloxgom also said that the three men "without provocation had attacked him, busting his lip and bruising his chin." He was treated for minor injuries.

Finnerty has entered a diversion program, and the simple assault charge against him will be dismissed upon completion of 25 hours community service, said his lawyer for that case, Steven J. McCool.

Under the diversion program in Washington, the charges are dropped if the defendant completes community service there and stays out of trouble, said O. Benton Curtis III, an assistant United States attorney assigned to Finnerty's case

...Art Chase, the Duke sports information director for lacrosse, said the men's coach, Mike Pressler, had been aware of some of the details, but perhaps not all, of Finnerty's situation.

"Coach did his own investigation looking into the matter and he allowed the court system to iron itself out there in regards to the player," Chase said, adding that Pressler had not reprimanded Finnerty.'