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.
Why are they not prosecuting Crystal Mangum? In my state it’s a crime to lie to a dogcatcher. Shouldn’t she be punished for trying to send innocent men to prison for 30 years?
Okay, step 1 is done. I wonder how many millions of dollars this whole thing is going to cost North Carolina?
Don’t get too excited ... disbarrment in many, if not most, jurisdictions is like being banned for life from the NFL or NBA ... he can reapply in five years.
If you're not paying state taxes, then you're not paying for the resulting litigation. My guess is that many of those who elected Mr. Nifong are paying little to no state taxes. Now, if they could divvy up his liabilities among those who voted for him, then we'd have something.
Will the DNC now put him in the Party leadership?
How about a Senate seat!
Amen,beat that drum loud!!!!!
“Hello, my name is Mike Nifong, may I take your order?
How about “Hello, my name is Mike Nifong and I am an idiot, may I take your order?”
The problem with that, Dr., is that a lot of the “people who you are voting for” are in fact, scum....and when you have a choice between scum and scum...you are going to get scum.....
the lesser of two evils...is still evil.
So, if people in NO voted for Ray Nagin, this applies?
Now that is poetic justice. I hope it galls him to no end that he mortgaged his house and gave the money away to another lawyer.
Now, about some jail time...
One wonders if the mortgage broker is in a jam.
Effective this afternoon, Nifong is disbarred.
Also, since he is not a Lawyer, he is no longer DA in Durham Co - no resignation required, he is out.
Thus, he has no income.
How is he to pay the mortgage?
Question: Is this debarment permanent? And does it apply to just the state or the whole United States?
I to have intimate knowledge of such a case, a friend of mine, you could say. Was accused of wrong doing in a LAWYERS office, of all places, and basically, my friend was simply screwed. A messed up public defense, LOUSY PD, my friends life was screwed up for YEARS (pled guilty to avoid any chance of jail time for various reasons, it has now been adjudicated, so its off the records). It changed my view of the criminal justice system...
Nifong will not appeal the punishment, his lawyer said.
He also told the governor he wouldn’t run for election at the time he was appointed to fill the seat. I don;t put much stock in anything he says, his track record isn’t so good.
Serving on a couple of juries changed mine. You see a side of other people you'd never guess existed. People incapable of logical thought, who make judgements exclusively based on their own prejudices and proud of the fact that they do. Very disheartening. I dread having to serve again, sometime.
It’s possible some of Nifong’s constituents are receiving more than they have given, but if the state is indeed stuck with paying a large settlement, even they may feel the bite.
State funds that are used to pay the possible settlement won’t be there to fund nanny programs, the likes of which those who pay less than their equitable amount of taxes tend to exploit.
Few Durham citizens are going to get out of this without some small sting for backing that race baiting S.O.B..
There remains a little problem....that is to interrogate and look at e-mails, files, etc. of all of the assistant district attorneys in that office. They knew this case. They knew what Nifong was doing. It looks like Durham has a nest of Nifongs. Clean ‘em all out...tooth and claw.
Fitz-fong, Ronnie Earle-fong, and especially Johnnie Sutton-fong.
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