http://abcnews.go.com/US/LegalCenter/story?id=2791514
ABC News LAw & Justice Unit
Jan. 12, 2007— District Attorney Mike Nifong has requested that he have himself removed from prosecuting the Duke Lacrosse rape investigation, ABC News has learned.
A source close to the investigation said Nifong sent a letter to North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper asking his office to assume responsibility of the case.
Three Duke Lacrosse players, Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty, and David Evans were indicted in 2006 on charges of rape, sexual assault, and kidnapping.
The rape charges were dropped in December after the accuser could not recall key details of the alleged attack.
Heck even Lis Whiel [sp?] is dumping on him. No mention of recusal yet. Whiel says if she had done what Nifong did with the DNA evidence she would have been fired.
Doesn't mean his request will be granted.
Did "Mad Mike" give any actual reason for his request to the AG?
Now that there's an actual story out about this, I see Nifong still didn't do the right thing, unless it's just not been looked into yet. He should have at least noticed the court that he was recusing himself.
I'm not sure what everybody is hooting and hollering about so gleefully for, at least not yet. This isn't necessarily good news. Of course, I'm kind of a doom and gloom type, but this case calls for doom and gloom. :<
I wonder if Nifong had enough juice to actually prearrange for a particular person to be assigned by the AG's office to replace him. We know Cooper doesn't want to handle it because of the political ramifications with the black vote unless he wants the railroading to continue, which he might. Cooper could appoint a former DA now in private practice to take it up. Somebody in a private practice in a predominantly white middle-class area who doesn't have to worry about elections or patronage from many black clients would be Cooper's best bet, but he probably won't do that. He might even appoint somebody he knows in advance will continue the case and not dismiss, such as a black female as someone suggested.
This will also most likely cause a continuance of the Feb. 5 hearing, and that also helps Nifong (and Mangum). If/when somebody else is assigned to the case, they will claim they need much more time to review and can't be ready by 2/5, which is a reasonable claim. Then, after the review, if the new prosecutor dismisses before a hearing on any of the pending motions, Nifong (and Mangum) will have avoided further exposure and the boys will suffer because they will not have had the opportunity to expose the full range of Mangum's lies by having her cross-examined by their attorneys. In that case, the cloud will not be fully lifted until civil suit testimony is taken.
I realize the defense attorneys wanted Nifong to recuse himself so almost anybody else could be appointed and hopefully dismiss, which is certainly better than having Nifong go forward with a trial, but it's far from ideal, especially coming at this point just before the hearing.
This is Nifong stalling for more time after establishing that he's had an opportunity to talk to Mangum, and he's using the bar investigation as his way out since that is probably the basis for his request for recusal.
More:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/D/DUKE_LACROSSE?SITE=7219&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2007-01-12-18-13-22
It appears not to have been a "leak" from the AG's office, but a quiet email sent late on a Friday before a holiday, all of which benefits Nifong.
The request will be reviewed SATURDAY, which is unusual.
Watch for the AG to agree to the request based on giving the prosecution's case a fair trial inasmuch as Nifong is under bar review for this very case which would damage its presentation to a jury. This would spin it away from being beneficial to the defense's case even though the defense filed to have Nifong removed long ago and again recently.
By requesting the AG do it, Nifong dodges being kicked off the case by the judge which would make him look much worse, particularly to the state bar, than him requesting the AG do it.