Duke D.A. Charged With Ethics Violations

AP via SFGate ^ | 12/30/6 | DAVID SCOTT

[SmithL]

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 Mark 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.

At the next hearing in the lacrosse case, set for Feb. 5, the defense is expected to ask a judge to throw out the results of photo lineup in which the accuser — a 28-year-old hired to perform as a stripper at a lacrosse team party — identified her attackers.

If that happens, experts have said Nifong would likely be forced to drop charges of kidnapping and sexual offense, and Nifong has acknowledged as much.

[Zuben Elgenubi]

[trimom]

The "victim" has had months of seeing the accused in the press. So now, there is some question about whether she can "identify" them in February. It's not about whether she can identify them, but whether the assault actually occurred. Oh, and I don't believe it did.

[lesser_satan]

A step in the right direction, but I won't be satisfied until he's in prison where the rape will be very, very real.

[sodpoodle]

It's Mike not Mark Nifong - so you have to wonder about the reporter's knowledge.

sp

[Locomotive Breath]

When I was at the Dec 15th hearing in Durham the AP guy (not this one) was standing next to me. Before the hearing started he leaned over and asked me if I would tell him who was at the defense table. He had done no homework at all before coming to the hearing.