Posted on 06/16/2007 1:28:45 PM PDT by stinkerpot65
Edited on 06/16/2007 4:05:02 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Nifong Accepts Disbarment David Freedman, Mike Nifong's attorney, has just announced that Nifong has accepted that disbarment is an "appropriate" penalty, and has accepted both disbarment and waived the right to appeal.
(AP) RALEIGH, N.C. District Attorney Mike Nifong will be disbarred for his disastrous prosecution of three Duke University lacrosse players falsely accused of rape, a disciplinary committee decided Saturday. Even the veteran prosecutor said the punishment was appropriate.
"This matter has been a fiasco. There's no doubt about it," said committee chairman F. Lane Williamson.
Nifong sat motionless, one hand resting over his mouth, as Williamson recounted how he engaged in dishonest and deceitful conduct. He said Nifong's early comments about the case — which included a confident proclamation that he wouldn't allow Durham to become known for "a bunch of lacrosse players from Duke raping a black girl" — were purposefully designed to boost his campaign for district attorney.
"At the time he was facing a primary, and yes, he was politically naive," Williamson said. "But we can draw no other conclusion that those initial statements he made were to further his political ambitions."
Nifong will not appeal the punishment, his lawyer said.
"He hopes this helps restore some of the confidence in the criminal justice system of North Carolina," said attorney David Freedman.
"On one hand, it's very devastating. On the other hand, he's been going through this process for a long time, so you always have some semblance of relief when the process is over with regardless of the outcome."
The North Carolina State Bar charged Nifong with breaking several rules of professional conduct, including lying to both the court and bar investigators and withholding critical DNA test results from the players' defense attorneys.
The committee, after deliberating for a little more than an hour on Saturday, unanimously agreed with the bar on almost every charge — including the most serious allegations — that Nifong's actions involved "dishonesty, fraud, deceit and misrepresentation."
State Bar prosecutor Douglas Brocker told the committee that as Nifong investigated the allegations that a stripper was raped and beaten at a March 2006 party thrown by Duke's lacrosse team, he charged "forward toward condemnation and injustice," weaving a "web of deception that has continued up through this hearing."
"Mr. Nifong did not act as a minister of justice, but as a minister of injustice," Brocker said.
The verdicts and the punishment did not appear to surprise Nifong, who acknowledged during sometimes tearful testimony Friday that he would likely be punished for getting "carried away a little bit" when talking about the case.
During Saturday's closing arguments, Williamson repeatedly interrupted Nifong's attorney, Dudley Witt, as he discussed the DNA testing.
Williamson questioned why it took several months for the defense to get DNA test results that found genetic material from several men in the accuser's underwear and body, but none from any lacrosse player.
"It wasn't just one little oversight," Williamson said later. "This was conduct over an extended period in a very high-profile case."
Aware of those test results, Nifong pressed ahead with the case anyway and won indictments against Dave Evans, Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty. State prosecutors later concluded the three players were "innocent" victims of a rogue prosecutor's "tragic rush to accuse."
Nifong made "multiple, egregious mistakes" as he pursued the charges, but not intentionally, his attorney said in closing statements.
"It didn't click," Witt said as he tried to explain one of his client's errors. "His mind is just his mind. That's the way it works. It just didn't click."
Brocker said Nifong had to have known he was making improper comments to reporters. Nifong said he regretted some of his statements, including a confident proclamation that he wouldn't allow Durham to become known for "a bunch of lacrosse players from Duke raping a black girl."
He also focused on when Nifong learned about the full extent of the DNA test results and when he shared that information with the defense.
Nifong gave defense attorneys an initial report on the DNA testing in May 2006 that said private lab DNA Security Inc. had been unable to find a conclusive match between the accuser and any lacrosse players.
But lab director Brian Meehan testified this week that he told Nifong as early as April 10, 2006 — a week before Seligmann and Finnerty were indicted — about the more detailed test results.
Nifong testified that when he gave the defense the initial report, he "believed at the time that I had given them everything."
The disciplinary hearing committee had the choice of suspending Nifong's law license or taking it away entirely.
Nifong told the panel hearing the case Friday that he would resign from his post as Durham County district attorney over his handling of the rape charges.
The players' attorneys have pledged to seek criminal contempt charges next week in Durham.
I'm happy that they will be able to get back to their lives of partying, under-aged drinking, and hiring strippers. Not that there is anything wrong with that, since they are innocent of this charge.
I agree, but this has not been mention. Because of his retirement, he was desperate to get elected.
Luckily Nifong went against some white kids from the right side of the tracks. He simply used the same tactics often used on minority kids of the same age, which normally works because their families lack the resources to fight the charges.
It’s a great way to eliminate a person’s constitutional rights, too. Can’t own fire arms (2nd amendment), can’t vote, can’t peacefully assemble in case there is another felon in the crowd.
I’m happy for your friend, but I’ll bet he’ll bear the scars until his dying day :(
One can only hope. The hateful liberals of Duke put these **innocent** men through HELL and back over false charges. One can only hope that the liberals get the same treatment some day. Maybe that will get them to change their ignorant, bigoted, hateful, ways.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
I hope things turn around for him, too. As it stands, his girls are ruined. The 15 yr old has multiple piercings and a couple of tatts. The boy is still okay, but asked us last year if we watched porn or did drugs. We hadn’t even hit the fwy yet. For the record, we do neither.
He’s still politically conservative, though. It really galls him that he can’t vote, especially since this upcoming presidental election is the most crucial one of our lives.
Nifong and his ilk are truly despicable. Even though the young men were exonerated, their lives are stained by this creep. Disbarrment isn’t enough. I want him to serve jail time.
He made their lives Hell on Earth and destroyed them. They will never totally recover. He should pay for the rest of his life too.
The parties are over for those guys. I don’t think you grasp what being accused of something like that will do to a person.
I posted an account of a former LE who was wrongly accused, and my bf’s account. There are literally thousands of broken lives littering this once great country. Trust me, the party is over.
It has to be a horrible experience to have something that you did in the passion and exuberance of your youth...something that you have tried to erase from your mind for years, suddenly brought to light for all to see.
The people who have no shame, those that would think nothing of the public ridicule...would also think nothing of using their position for personal gain.....power and financial...grand and petty theft like stealing furniture from the White House, for instance.
I think that there are a lot of people who would make a great and honest public servant who will not risk having their past dragged thru the shiite.
<<
How is he to pay the mortgage?
>>
Work the street, just like Crystal.
<<
He simply used the same tactics often used on minority kids of the same age, which normally works because their families lack the resources to fight the charges.
>>
I always used to think those kind of folks where just trying to play the system. After this and the case of the black kid in Rome, GA who got railroaded, I don’t have any respect for our obsolete system of “justice.”
Any reason why he shouldn't be?
Not saying, of course, that Nagan would not have won anyway...no matter who ran against him.....the people have to have a desire not to be governed by scum....and have the intelligence and descernment to know when someone is scummy and when one is not.
I imagine Nifong is probably in shock right now - I doubt he has come to grips with exactly how much his life changed, this afternoon.
Not that I really care.
One crooked prosecutor down.
Johnny Sutton, you’re up.
Jeanne Cooper is the ageless actress from Y&R
It's really too bad that the taxpaying citizens who didn't support this lynching of the students are going to have to pay for it with even higher taxes. The welfare recipient citizens of Durham, who pushed this won't suffer at all. They'll just elect another democrat.
The disbarment applies only in the state of NC. If he would move to another state it is conceivable that he could receive a bar license in that state.....not probable but conceivable.
Other doctors and lawyers have done such things before but in other instances where there was not so much publicity.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.