DURHAM, N.C. ? The district attorney dropped rape charges Friday against three Duke University lacrosse players after the stripper who accused them changed her story again. But the men still face kidnapping and sex charges that could bring more than 30 years in prison.

A lawyer for one of the athletes bitterly demanded that District Attorney Mike Nifong drop the remaining counts, accusing him of offering shifting theories of the crime in an attempt to win the case at any cost.

“It’s now the shifting sands again, the shifting factual theory,” defense attorney Joseph Cheshire said. “It is the ethical duty of a district attorney not to win a case, not to prosecute all cases, but to see that justice is done.”

Nifong previously said he would rely on the woman’s account because of a lack of DNA evidence against the players.

Lacking any “scientific or other evidence independent of the victim’s testimony” to corroborate that aspect of the case, the district attorney said in court papers, “the state is unable to meet its burden of proof with respect to this offense.”

In recent months, Nifong has been vilified by some lawyers and members of the community for pressing ahead with what appeared to many to be a remarkably weak case.

“He has said to you his case rises and falls on the statements of the accuser,” Cheshire said of the district attorney. “He gets yet again a different story from her, which disputes and goes against the other stories she has told.”

The accuser, a 28-year-old student at North Carolina Central University, has said three men raped her while holding her against her will in a bathroom at a March 13 Duke lacrosse team party where she was hired to perform as a stripper.

The indicted players – Dave Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann – all say they are innocent. Their attorneys have consistently said no sex occurred at the party.

The men are still charged with kidnapping, for allegedly holding the woman against her will, and sexual offense. Under state law, a rape charge requires vaginal intercourse, while sexual offense covers any sexual act. In dropping the rape charges, Nifong did not specify what sex acts prosecutors now believe occurred.

A defendant’s prior criminal record affects the length of a prison sentence in North Carolina. In the case of the three indicted players, Cheshire said rape and sexual offense carry the same possible sentence of up to 24 years in prison, while kidnapping is punishable by up to seven years.