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.
my thought as well.
YEAH, sue off their pants! UP with the youth culture concept that poor choices have no consequence. HIRE strippers and leave them ruined, milk the system, get drunk, go free, do NOT pay $200 and don't go to jail. It's the modern thing. No poor choices and if you PAY the fiddler, then Dance! Decent people go to bed earlier and stay away from haunts.
DUH you think? He should be working at legal aid for $45,000/ year - that's if he gets out of this with his license. But hey he got reelected and that is what it's all about right?
Career-ending? Ya think? The man's displayed an incredible lack of a sense of judgement, to say the least. That's career-ending in and of itself.
>>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. <<
For some reason?!
The doctor that delivered me in 1954 lost his legal ability to prescribe drugs in the mid 1980's for "some reason".
The reason was that he was drugging up my grandmother and other people in convolescent homes to the point of virtual unconsciousness for years.
My grandmother got much better...
O.K. I stand corrected but you probably get my point. These kids and their families are being imprisoned by our Injustice system and they should be reimburrsed for what they have gone through. This has ruined three young men's lives and Nifong and the racist hucksters should have to pay.
IS that a crime? Inquiring minds want to know.
No one has said that the boys were right to hire a stripper. But hiring a stripper and being accused of rape and kidnapping are two very different things. It's like not putting money in the parking meter and being charged with arson.
My wish is to see those boys ride out of town in shiny new Ferraris, waving goodbye to the town with their middle fingers.
It should also end the careers of many administrators and faculty members at Duke..
Lacrosse case could end Nifong's career, experts say
Let's hope and pray it does. We do not need someone like him in power. Everything he did was to advance his own career at the expense of innocent people.
Precisely..I mean didn't any of these prosecutors watch "My Cousin Vinnie"?
..and certainly Law & Order would give 'em a clue.
Teaches you all the basic rules about disclosure and exculpatory evidence :)
Don't forget the broad that started the whole mess. She should be sued into oblivion too.
... let me just add that if this were a white stripper, there would have been no story. That is a fact.
Boy you are one twisted individual. Blame the victims, eh?
I believe a review of past cases he ran is in ordered. If he did this for a high profile case, how many other people got Nifonged?
"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. "
This analysis leaves me almost speechless. Nevermind that she's changed her story countless times. Nevermind that her credibility is totally tanked. Kennedy's opinion is that these changes strengthen Nifong's case . . . if only he had turned over the lab evidence more quickly.
Typical lib professor!
I should hope so. A clear case of prosecutorial misconduct.
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