[snipped here and there for brevity]
In early 2000, two rapes occurred in the Trinity Park neighborhood, off Duke's east campus. Acting under strong pressure from the Trinity Park "community", police charged a black homeless man, Leroy Summers, based solely on an identification from the second woman who was raped.
After Summers was charged, the police sent a rape kit to the State Bureau of Investigation lab. When the results came in, no match existed for Summers' DNA. But a male DNA specimen was found. Technicians ran the result through a national crime database, revealing the DNA of Jeffrey Lamont McNeill, who subsequently was charged with the crime.
According to the July 12, 2000 N&O, the prosecutor issued a definitive written statement: "Results of DNA testing exclude the defendant as the perpetrator of this crime."
The prosecutor's name: Mike Nifong.
Ex-candidate faces more trouble [Durham humour]
A former Durham mayoral hopeful is sought by police again
Matt Dees, Staff Writer, N&O, Dec 21, 2006
DURHAM - Vincent Cortez Brown, who left the 2005 mayoral race amid revelations that he tried to cover his past as a convicted felon, is wanted by police again.
Durham police started looking for Brown on Sept. 28, when a warrant was issued for his arrest on charges he defrauded a man of nearly $30,000. They have yet to find him and issued a news release Wednesday seeking the public's help.
Brown, 46, who claimed in his campaign to be a lay Baptist minister and a former Navy SEAL, allegedly was paid for architectural work he never performed.
He signed a $29,800 contract to survey a lot, demolish a building and clear the site at 2911 Guess Road, police said.
Brown never did, police said.
He faces one count of obtaining property by false pretense.
Anyone with information on Brown's whereabouts is asked to call Investigator A.H. Holland at 560-4440, ext. 254, or CrimeStoppers at 683-1200.
He dropped out of the mayor's race after The News & Observer disclosed his extensive criminal history and his use of multiple birth dates and Social Security numbers.
The N&O confirmed that Brown had been charged with more than 100 crimes over a 15-year span, pleading guilty on 46 counts in courtrooms across North Carolina. Records indicated that Brown had been found guilty of felony forgery in Pender County, getting him time in state prison. Brown also had four felony convictions for larceny in Virginia.
Brown also was arrested in early May and charged with assault and battery and communicating threats.
He was acquitted of those charges in July, court records show.
But he was convicted of communicating threats that same month, following a charge by Phillip Barnett Jr. on May 18, court records show. Brown appealed that verdict, and the case remains unresolved, records show.
http://www.newsobserver.com/145/story/523777.html
* Gotta just love this town.
OMG.
I just wonder if that victim was unable to identify anybody from a photo line-up.
Based on this, we can reasonably infer that Nifong knew precisely what he was doing when he "directed" the lab not to fully report their DNA findings.
He is one scary dude, even to be in charge of traffic court.
I think Nifong was Traffic Court Czar in 2000. Jim Hardin, whose appointment to a Superior Court vacancy allowed Gov. Easley to name Nifong interim-DA, was the Durham DA in 2000.