''There were many points in the case where caution would have served justice better than bravado,'' North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper said in a damning assessment of Durham County District Mike Nifong's handling of the sensational case.

Cooper, who took over the case in January after Nifong was charged with ethics violations that could get him disbarred, said his own investigation concluded not only that the evidence against the young men was insufficient, but that no attack took place.

Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty and David Evans were indicted last spring on charges of rape, kidnapping and sexual offense after the woman told police she was assaulted in the bathroom at an off-campus house during a team party where she had been hired to perform.

But the attorney general said the eyewitness identification procedures were unreliable, no DNA supported the woman's story, no other witness corroborated it, and the woman contradicted herself.

''Based on the significant inconsistencies between the evidence and the various accounts given by the accusing witness, we believe these three individuals are innocent of these charges,'' Cooper said.

He said the charges resulted from a ''tragic rush to accuse and a failure to verify serious allegations.''

Cooper called for the passage of a state law that would allow the North Carolina Supreme Court to remove a prosecutor ''who needs to step away from a case where justice demands.''