AG Cooper totally surprised me about an hour ago.

Not only did he dismiss all charges against the three Duke lacrosse players, he called them innocent and said his investigation found no evidence of an attack on accuser Crystal Gail Magnum by anyone at the party that night last March.

The key passages from Cooper’s statement:

We believe that these cases were the result of a tragic rush to accuse and a failure to verify serious allegations. 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. …

However, the contradictions in her many versions of what occurred and the conflicts between what she said occurred and other evidence, like photographs and phone records, could not be rectified.

Our investigation shows that:

The eyewitness identification procedures were faulty and unreliable. No DNA confirms the accuser’s story. No other witness confirms her story. Other evidence contradicts her story. She contradicts herself. Next week, we’ll be providing a written summary of the important factual findings and some of the specific contradictions that have led us to the conclusion that no attack occurred.

In this case, with the weight of the state behind him, the Durham district attorney pushed forward unchecked. There were many points in the case where caution would have served justice better than bravado. And in the rush to condemn, a community and a state lost the ability to see clearly. Regardless of the reasons this case was pushed forward, the result was wrong. Today, we need to learn from this and keep it from happening again to anybody.

I expected Cooper to take the easy way out and simply say that his office could not find enough evidence to continue the case. Instead, Cooper said the case should have never been brought and strongly implied that Durham DA Mike Nifong should be held legally responsible for that decision.

Cooper also called Nifong a “rogue prosecutor” and proposed that North Carolina adopt new rules allowing the state Supreme Court to remove a prosecutor from a case. Cooper also made clear that Magnum wanted to continue the prosecution of the case, a direct slap at the notion advanced by some — include Duke administrators who should know better — that Magnum somehow deserved “her” day in court.

Those same Duke officials must be climbing the walls now considering that Cooper’s finding gives plenty of ammo to the former Duke students to sue the gowns off of Duke for some of the comments made and actions taken in the wake of the fictional attack. The university should be on the phone right now agreeing to pay the estimated $3 million in legal fees racked up by the young men.

Pay now or pay later.

Finally, it will be interesting to see how The New York Times spins Cooper’s statements. And maybe — just maybe — local journalists will learn to trust their guts about stories rather than pay attention to how much play they get from the Times.