Excellent recap. I think the DA jumped out in front of this way too fast, without waiting for the investigation. If he had managed it better, there would have been every opportunity for him to appear even handed and in the pursuit of justice.
Instead, he not only potentially smeared a bunch of people unfairly (and by implication many others), he potentially hurt his own case if additional information is uncovered to support the claims of the victim. Not only that, he took the incident and turned it into a potential race war. In a situation like that, nobody is going to win in the end.
I believe one of the biggest career ending decisions a DA can make is to go too far, too fast and appear either agenda driven or stupid. In this guys case, he is teetering on the edge of both.
I think Nifong was blinded by his own prejudice and his amnition to make his last gasp to be "somebody." I think his own bias against Duke students, based on misbegotten notion of them being privileged and wealthy, caused him to really believe this woman, snd he just went with it for political purposes. He clearly plans on riding this into elected office, but he bet on the wrong horse.