Posted on 01/15/2007 9:50:37 AM PST by freespirited
Forced by allegations of prosecutorial misconduct to recuse himself, the district attorney who drove the Duke lacrosse sexual-assault case could end up losing much more than the opportunity to try a case he still supports.
For Mike Nifong, the missteps of the past 10 months have the potential to end a career that started nearly 30 years ago.
"You don't easily recover from something like this," said James Coleman, a law professor at Duke University and a frequent Nifong critic. "That's what's so unfortunate about this. He had a career - a long career, a reputation of being an honest and fair prosecutor - and for some reason, his conduct in this case was inconsistent with that.
"It's just bizarre," he said. "This is the biggest case by far that he's handled, and he didn't do a very good job, and I think that's going to haunt him."
When Nifong asked the N.C. Attorney General's office Friday to take over the case of three lacrosse players accused of sexually assaulting a woman hired to strip at a team party, he was less than two weeks into his first full term as Durham County's elected district attorney.
Now he must defend himself against ethics charges that could lead to his disbarment. If N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper dismisses the case against Dave Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann - and legal experts have said that there appears to be little evidence to support the charges - their families might try to file a civil lawsuit against Nifong.
If and when he returns to the courtroom, Nifong will have to rebuild a reputation tainted by the vast attention generated by the lacrosse case.
"Nothing happens in a vacuum," said Garry Frank, a district attorney in four North Carolina counties and the president of the N.C. Conference of District Attorneys. "It's something that he and his office will have to work through. It will be a challenge for him."
The conference offered Nifong assistance in September - an offer that went unanswered. Frank said that Nifong appeared surprised in December that his colleagues were concerned about his handling of the case. They later formally called on Nifong to recuse himself.
"Folks that have to do the things we do on a day-to-day basis quickly learn to take good advice when you can get it," Frank said.
A more immediate concern for Nifong is the pending ethics charges that accuse him of making misleading and inflammatory comments about the lacrosse team, including calling them "nothing but a bunch of hooligans." A hearing on those charges is scheduled for May.
John Banzhaf, a law professor at George Washington University, thinks that more ethics charges are forthcoming. The director of a private lab has said that he and Nifong agreed to keep out of a report given to the defense results of DNA testing that found genetic material from several unknown men on the accuser's body and underwear, and found that none of the DNA matched that of the three indicted players.
While the defense was eventually given the test results, as required by state law, it wasn't until months later.
Joseph Kennedy, a law professor at the University of North Carolina, said that the accuser's Dec. 21 interview with an investigator, in which she changed several key details in her description of the attack, is also a concern.
Among the changes, the accuser offered a new timeline that put the attack outside of the apparent alibi window established by Seligmann's attorneys. She also said she could no longer be sure that she was penetrated vaginally by a penis, which could have helped Nifong explain to a jury why there was no DNA evidence.
"It's just troubling that ... nine months after the event, there's an interview and the interview reveals this fact, which minimizes the importance of the evidence they didn't turn over," Kennedy said.
As a prosecutor, Nifong enjoys broad but not absolute immunity from civil litigation, and the families of the indicted players have hinted that they plan to sue. Asked in an interview with CBS' 60 Minutes what she would say to Nifong if they met, Evans' mother said, "Mr. Nifong, you've picked on the wrong families ... and you will pay every day for the rest of your life."
Some of Nifong's harshest critics have also suggested that he face criminal charges, but Kennedy said that those charges "should only be reserved for the most egregious types of misconduct. And it's too early to say whether this might be one of those cases."
Nifong has no plans to resign and is intent on carrying on with cases as the district attorney in Durham County, said his attorney, David Freedman.
No penetration no rape. A "law professor" should know that. He should have reasoned it out from the lack of DNA evidence before she changed her story.
Regards,
GtG
PS Inquiring minds want to know if "the boys" were tested for STD's? Just curious.
Remember the new Free Republic motto (and it's hard to do)
Don't feed the trolls.
I think he supports his own ability to get on his high horse and pontificate at will.
Concur!!
I think it's when you have a tear in your raft. In which case it would likely sink before going over the falls.
A plea deal is probably what Nifong initially wanted. I am glad there is no plea agreement. The charges will be dropped imo. Lawsuits will go forward.
rovenstinez, are you Mike Nifong in FReeper's clothing?
"Don't forget the broad that started the whole mess. She should be sued into oblivion too."
I wouldn't be so fast on that. God knows what Nifong said or did to her to manipulate her to make the accusations she did. In fact, we might find that the accusations she made bear little resemblance to the charges Nifong came out with.
ditto
You got it.....................................
Can't disagree too much with what you said there, but spending years in jail for something you didn't do is a bit of a stretch. No?
The only way I can see the prosecutor getting convictions is if all the jurors have their minds made up in advance to find the defendants guilty, and the judge is very cooperative in allowing only the most helpful of Mangum's multiple versions to be presented to the jury. Then the convictions will be overturned on appeal.
The only one who would benefit from a plea bargain now is Nifong, since it might help him avoid disbarment.
I wouldn't be so fast on that. God knows what Nifong said or did to her to manipulate her to make the accusations she did. In fact, we might find that the accusations she made bear little resemblance to the charges Nifong came out with.
What does it matter? She did what she did. For her own benefit, she tried to ruin lives. She should be punished for that, no matter what her motivation.
You can RENT a Hat, and RENT a whore, and even a stripper, 20 year old boys do such things. WHY does the FR world think that these poor choices are excusable and that there is no need to suffer the consequences of one's poor choices. Nifong was absolutely wrong, the press judged the guys before they had a trial, the law was put aside, but PLEASE, please...things happen to people when they do things that they know deep down inside isn't the WISE thing to do. Are we teaching University kids to be WISE....or foolish. So Pro Football athletes get gunned down at 3 a.m, in a Hummer, that carousing crowd gets out of hand. Anyone who rents a stripper that is a psycho liar, and gets drunk, needs to know that they put themselves in a precarious position. Dumb kids. Stupid. I guess though they did have fun.
I thought it might be related to something series, like a beeber. I think we need to add it to the freeper lexicon.
You're right! I'm stuned I didn't think of it. LOL.Sounds like a keeper to me.
So I take it that you inhabit Uranus?
No he/she is just an *ss!
Interesting comment. Nifong should get a whipping for what he did, but what about the lib climate that fostered this egregious example of injustice? The whole Duke lib faculty and assorted lib agitators should be put on trial too for trying to railroad innocent kids who were hung before they were tried. That won't happen, but it should. The other maniacs involved should be put on display like Nifong and made an example of.
True but for a very few.
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