RALEIGH (AP) -- He calls it a "tragic rush to accuse" by an overreaching district attorney.

Those comments by North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper came as he announced that state prosecutors are dropping the remaining charges against the three Duke lacrosse players accused of sexually assaulting a woman hired to perform as a stripper at a party.

Cooper told reporters that, quote, "there were many points in the case where caution would have served justice better than bravado." It was an indictment of Durham County District Mike Nifong's handling of the case.

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

He says the case shows what he calls "the enormous consequences of overreaching by a prosecutor."

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)