Posted on 06/18/2007 4:22:51 AM PDT by Kaslin
Last year, an obscure prosecutor from North Carolina made a decision that would turn him into a national pariah and end his 28-year legal career.
Black stripper Crystal Gail Mangum claimed that in the early morning hours of March 14, 2006, she was raped by white Duke University lacrosse players at a house party. She told conflicting accounts of the gang rape. In April 2006, Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong presented evidence to a grand jury, seeking and obtaining indictments for first degree forcible rape, sexual offense, and kidnapping against lacrosse players Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty.
Several days before the indictments, defense attorneys revealed there was no DNA match between Mangum and the 46 players tested. A month later, lacrosse team captain David Evans was indicted on the same charges.
On December 22, Nifong dropped the first degree forcible rape charges after Mangum said she couldn’t remember whether she’d been raped. In January 2007, North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper took over the case. Citing lack of evidence and inconsistent witness statements, he dropped all charges against Seligmann, Finnerty, and Evans on April 11, declaring the men “innocent and Nifong a “rogue” prosecutor.
Last Friday, a disgraced, disgraceful, and under-repentant Nifong sat before his North Carolina State Bar colleagues and the men he virtually held hostage for a year, tearfully offering a tepid, lawyer-like apology for his transgressions:
“To the extent that I made judgments that ultimately proved to be incorrect, I apologize to the three students that were wrongly accused.”
He announced his resignation as district attorney:
“My community has suffered enough… It has become apparent, during the course of this week, in some ways that it might not have been before, that my presence as the district attorney in Durham is not furthering the cause of justice.”
Neither his apology nor his intent to resign were enough to overcome his egregious ethics violations. On Saturday, June 16, Nifong’s colleagues found him guilty of lying to a judge, withholding evidence from the defense, and making inflammatory statements to the media about the case. And they disbarred him.
The decision is almost anti-climactic for those who saw through Nifong from the start. I got wind of the case a couple of weeks after Mangum accused the men. My initial impression turned out to be accurate – a stripper with a criminal record, a history of mental problems, and fantasies of gang rape told a Tawana Brawley-style whopper to save her own skin. But most of the blame falls squarely on Nifong’s head.
Appointed to the position in 2005, Nifong ran for district attorney in 2006. He plowed ahead with a stunningly weak case, fanning the flames of race and class tension in the heavily black city. Overwhelmed and perhaps flattered by the media attention, he was unable or unwilling to objectively assess his case, his main witness, or his future as a lawyer. Nifong used the case to campaign for office, exuding an aura of class envy, smarminess, and vindictiveness in the process.
During his testimony before the disciplinary panel, Nifong contradicted himself many times and conceded violating the Rules of Professional Conduct. Incredibly, he admitted that he hadn’t read police reports. More incredibly still, Nifong maintains that “something” happened that night between the stripper and the players, that he “tried to do the right thing,” and that he never withheld anything from the defense or misrepresented evidence.
Knowing his disbarment was imminent, Nifong should have reserved some level of dignity by skipping the Bill Clinton-like obfuscations and accepting full responsibility for his actions. But to the very end, he remained self-absorbed.
Thank God for La Shawn Barber. She helped keep attention focused on the facts of this case.
No mention in any of these stories about the Black Panthers being down there for a week or two supporting their “sister” and drumming up votes for Nifongs re-election.
And IIRC they were photographed right in front of the house where the false rape occurred.
The lead investigator from the Durham PD, (Gotleib [sp]),should get his comeuppance as well.
I am loathe to throw around the word evil, but in this case no other word will do. This man is not merely an ambitious politician he is evil. What more do you need to know about this creep? Think about it, Mrs. Nifong.
The way society seems to work today, Nifong will write a book and make more money than he could have imagined when he was a filthy politician.
Unmentioned in the whole affair is that Durham blacks have demonstrated that they are strictly motivated in their voting by racism.
Then run for Mayor. And probably win.
He's presidential material now. Reverend Al can teach him a thing or two.
/sarcasm
Great post.
Thank you. And that is a good part of the reason that Crystal Magnum is not being prosecuted herself.
I think you might be on to something.
Ah, but that assumes that she doesn’t know/hasn’t realized what kind of man she’s married.
Oh, you bet there was. I've only lived here in Durham for five months, and I can see it already. Durham County has a pretty high black population (concentrated in the city of Durham proper) and is one of the "bluer" counties in North Carolina. Not to mention that there out in the 'burbs, there's a lot of transplants from up North, and then you factor in moonbat leakage from the People's Republic of Chapel Hill next door, a burgeoning illegal immigrant population, and a good-sized university in the middle of it all, and voila! A voting public that's tailor-made for The Fong to make his rep on the back of those three lacrosse players.
The irony is, The Fong got appointed to the vacant DA position in 2005 by a Democratic governor. Now that he's resigned, Durham County will get a new DA...appointed by a Democratic governor. Let's hope Gov. Weasley picks a little better this time.
}:-)4
And, the tragedy is that this kind of thing is happening everyday, but the accused have not the money to make it stop.
Now, the real outcome of this is not that DAs will think twice before riding into office on the backs of the innocent; it is that DAs will ride into office on the backs of poor innocent people.
Made a whole lot more sense to me than all of the convoluted conspiracy theories (which, IMHO, he's not smart enough to come up with in the 1st place). When in doubt, follow the money trail.
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