I hear ya! I failed to check my computer this morning for any updates on the Duke case, went to my noon German class, and found myself swamped when I got home at 2:30. I'm just about caught up on the FR posts, and then I have to read the motion and get caught up with the other boards (DIW and Liestoppers will be the next stops). And then the THs on the tube tonight. Jeesh! What did I do with my free time before this case?
Can anyone provide a quick summary of L. Stahl's CBS Evening News report? Thanks.
Did you all see this one already?
Former aide, Nifong snipe at each other
Benjamin Niolet, Staff Writer
DURHAM - The woman who ran Mike Nifong's campaign for district attorney before defecting to work against the prosecutor said Nifong was a political novice who should have told voters the N.C. State Bar was investigating his handling of a sexual assault investigation against Duke University lacrosse players.
"I think that he owed it to the voters to step out and say, 'Just so you know, there's a chance that I will get a complaint filed against me from the N.C. Bar,' " said Jackie Brown, a longtime Durham political activist.
In an interview, Nifong described his former campaign director as a woman more concerned with getting credit for good work than doing it.
"There were actually several people who said to me they would not consider voting for me because she worked on my campaign," Nifong said in an interview in which he declined to discuss the lacrosse case. "Her biggest concern during the campaign seemed to be how she was billed in the campaign ads."
The two traded jabs through a reporter Wednesday. Brown talked in detail about the events that led her to leave Nifong's campaign to work for a candidate who promised he wouldn't take the job if elected -- an anybody-but-Nifong campaign. Nifong won the three-way contest in November, although more than half of the voters split their votes between Nifong's opponents.
In the months since the November election, Nifong's critics have grown increasingly vocal as defense attorneys for the lacrosse players have turned up the pressure on Nifong. They have exposed weaknesses in the case, while others have called his judgment and ethics into question.
In December, Nifong dropped the rape charge against the players after the accuser said she was no longer sure of a key detail of her allegations. A DNA expert testified in a hearing that he and Nifong agreed to leave off a report evidence that was favorable to the lacrosse players. After the State Bar accused Nifong of ethics violations over his early public statements in the case, the Conference of District Attorneys joined calls for Nifong to recuse himself from the case.
Nifong would not comment on the State Bar complaint or whether he would recuse himself. But he said whatever he does, it will not be at Brown's urging.
"Whatever happens will happen for whatever reason it happens," Nifong said. "I think I can assure you if I did anything that happened to be what Jackie [Brown] suggested, that would not be the reason I was doing it."
David Evans, 23, of Bethesda, Md.; Collin Finnerty, 20, of Garden City, N.Y.; and Reade Seligmann, 20, of Essex Fells, N.J., face felony charges in connection with the accusations. The men maintain their innocence and say the accusations are lies.
Brown said Wednesday that during the primary campaign, she found that Nifong had no political instincts and had to be told to shake as many hands as he could at a party. For campaign material, he favored a photo of his family by the Eno River over one of him behind a desk with a flag looking like a prosecutor, she said.
"He was the most naive candidate I have ever encountered," Brown said. "He knew nothing about politics."
Brown said when Nifong began giving interviews to scores of reporters during the last week of March, she never thought he was motivated by a desire to win political favor.
"I went to him when he was doing the media -- 'Mike, you need to stop this. You don't know the impact either way this is going to have,' " Brown said. "He was simply caught up in the moment."
The lacrosse case is due back in court in February. The accuser is among the witnesses expected to testify in the defense effort to have key evidence in the case thrown out.