Posted on 12/29/2006 10:07:41 PM PST by rawhide
Dec. 29, 2006 In yet another moral blow to Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong, the North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys called for the prosecutor to step down from the Duke lacrosse case.
The group, which represents district attorneys from across North Carolina, said in a statement that "it is in the interest of justice and the effective administration of criminal justice that Mr. Nifong immediately withdraw and recuse himself from the prosecution."
"It's extraordinarily unusual and it means a great deal," said Joshua Marquis, a district attorney in Clatsop County, Ore.
The district attorney group also called for the case to be reassigned and handed over to "another prosecutorial authority."
The statement was prompted by charges of ethics violations against Nifong filed Thursday by the North Carolina bar. Those allegations accuse Nifong of making inappropriate comments about the case in a series of press interviews early in the proceedings.
"As prosecutors, we do not try our cases in the media. We do not file charges frivolously," Marquis, who is active in the National District Attorneys Association, told ABC News.
"I do not know what the merit of the charges are, but Mr. Nifong has not brought respect to our profession," Marquis said. "Some of his actions have brought great disrepute on the profession of prosecution."
Under North Carolina state law, there is no rule requiring Nifong to recuse himself from the case, even though he has been charged with ethics violations. But Nifong's critics including defense attorneys for the three indicted Duke lacrosse players say Nifong should step down because the ethics charges create a glaring and unavoidable conflict of interest. A prosecutor, they argue, cannot make fair and independent decisions when he himself is in legal hot water.
"My opinion is that this crystallizes the conflict of interest," Thomas Metzloff, a member of the North Carolina bar and professor at Duke Law School, told ABC News.
No sooner than three months from now, Nifong will stand trial before a panel drawn from the bar's disciplinary hearing commission. If that panel finds Nifong guilty of misconduct, he would be subject to punishment ranging from private admonishment to disbarment.
We have only seen the tip of a very dirty iceberg.
Who is Nifong protecting other than himself? the missing police chief? drug lords? They must be pretty powerful.
Oh no. Not even close. NJ is the most corrupt, followed by PA, then LA, then IL. NC is up there with MI, but not even in the same league as New Jersey corruption.
Hint: starts with "P" and ends with "y"
I'll buy one vowel and a double "s"
Possibly?
Oh, you are B A D.
And I love it!
The prostitution industry is a protected industry in that area. That means there are organized criminal elements (drugs, arms) and corrupt officials on the take.
(Sure, they bust hispanic brothels and streetwalkers. Tokens)
The question is how far up the ladder does the corruption go? All the way to Raleigh?
Duke D.A.'s Hearing May be Months Away
RALEIGH, N.C. By the time the prosecutor in the Duke University lacrosse case is tried on ethics charges, the sexual assault indictment he sought against three players may have been long since dismissed.
If the woman who claims the players sexually assaulted her at a party can't identify them at a February hearing, Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong has said, he will abandon the divisive case.
It will be weeks, if not months, after that before Nifong defends himself against charges that he violated four rules of professional conduct by making misleading and inflammatory comments about the athletes, said Thomas Lunsford, executive director of the state bar.
The bar association, which filed the ethics charges Thursday, will not schedule Nifong's trial-like hearing for at least three months, Lunsford said Friday.
I happen to know that the Wake County DA office is just as bad as the Durham County DA office. I have personally witnessed people prosecuted for non-crimes.
Yep the internet is fabulous. Thanks for the links.
Nah. He will be off the case but not suspended. He will win the next election and remain DA. (See my post #23)
"1. Guess what the graduation rate is for the Duke lacrosse team. No really, go for it. Hazard a guess. A team at an elite private university is still full of a bunch of numbskull jocks, right? And, we all know what kind of guys the Duke lacrosse players are. The very even-handed mainstream media has treated us to a picture of them as non-stop, beer-guzzling Neanderthals who spend all their time using Mommys and Daddys Northeastern, lily-white riches to find new and exciting ways to exploit local minorities. Well, those meat-headed cavemen have a 100-percent graduation rate. One hundred percent. You read that right. Thats three percent higher than the overall student-athlete graduation rate, at a university with one of the highest student-athlete graduation rates in the nation. Only one other mens sport at Dukecross countrycan match that rate.
2. Did you know they didnt just graduate? Many of them even distinguished themselves academically? This from the report of the Lacrosse Ad Hoc Review Committee, the group of Duke faculty charged with deciding whether or not to retain the lacrosse program in the wake of the rape case. In 2005, twenty seven members of the lacrosse team, more than half, made the Atlantic Coast Conference's Academic Honor Roll, more than any other ACC lacrosse team. 9 Between 2001 and 2005, 146 members of the lacrosse team made the Academic Honor Roll, twice as many as the next ACC lacrosse team. The lacrosse team's academic performance generally is one of the best among all Duke athletic teams. Professors described lacrosse players in their classes as polite students who took academic obligations seriously.
3. Most of the lacrosse players are middle-class, suburban kids, not uber-rich socialites..."
2010 may be jumping the gun a little.
"In yet another moral blow..."
I think it was supposed to say, "mortal."
It must go pretty high. It's got the chief of police so anxiety ridden that he hasn't been seen for 8 months.
The point is getting pulled off the case is the best possible outcome for him short of a victory in court, which is not possible. He will remain a hero to the black voter, and there is no reason he could not stay on indefinitely as DA or run for another, higher office, like mayor.
I thought we may have missed his funeral.
Tom Delay and Scooter Libby have been "Nifonged" for real....
Is anyone keeping a list of scumbag politicized 'Rat prosecutors who need to be disbarred and disgraced? So many Demagogues seem to have no conscience or scruples, even though they love to tell us all how "progressive" and idealistic they are.....
A start would be:
(TX) Ronnie Earle's misconduct in the Tom Delay case
(DC) Patrick Fitzgerald's misconduct in the Pflamegate case
(NC) Mike Nifong's most obscene misconduct in this Duke case
(FL) who's the scumbag prosecutor who's been hounding Rush Limbaugh over painkillers and viagra, etc.?
Yep , Nifonged is Right ! I Can't Wait for Nifong to be Nifonged ! LOL !
Thanks , for the clarification ( With Judge Stephens you could definitly see a type of nepotism ) . Judge Smith will throw the case out , hopefully !
Exactly and sadly a natural extention of a party that rarely can get anything it wants via the legislative process. Because of this the Dims have turned to the courts to beat the will of the people. A natural next step is politicizing prosecutions. It is a sad sad reflection on Dims.
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