Posted on 06/16/2007 1:28:45 PM PDT by stinkerpot65
Edited on 06/16/2007 4:05:02 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Nifong Accepts Disbarment David Freedman, Mike Nifong's attorney, has just announced that Nifong has accepted that disbarment is an "appropriate" penalty, and has accepted both disbarment and waived the right to appeal.
(AP) RALEIGH, N.C. District Attorney Mike Nifong will be disbarred for his disastrous prosecution of three Duke University lacrosse players falsely accused of rape, a disciplinary committee decided Saturday. Even the veteran prosecutor said the punishment was appropriate.
"This matter has been a fiasco. There's no doubt about it," said committee chairman F. Lane Williamson.
Nifong sat motionless, one hand resting over his mouth, as Williamson recounted how he engaged in dishonest and deceitful conduct. He said Nifong's early comments about the case — which included a confident proclamation that he wouldn't allow Durham to become known for "a bunch of lacrosse players from Duke raping a black girl" — were purposefully designed to boost his campaign for district attorney.
"At the time he was facing a primary, and yes, he was politically naive," Williamson said. "But we can draw no other conclusion that those initial statements he made were to further his political ambitions."
Nifong will not appeal the punishment, his lawyer said.
"He hopes this helps restore some of the confidence in the criminal justice system of North Carolina," said attorney David Freedman.
"On one hand, it's very devastating. On the other hand, he's been going through this process for a long time, so you always have some semblance of relief when the process is over with regardless of the outcome."
The North Carolina State Bar charged Nifong with breaking several rules of professional conduct, including lying to both the court and bar investigators and withholding critical DNA test results from the players' defense attorneys.
The committee, after deliberating for a little more than an hour on Saturday, unanimously agreed with the bar on almost every charge — including the most serious allegations — that Nifong's actions involved "dishonesty, fraud, deceit and misrepresentation."
State Bar prosecutor Douglas Brocker told the committee that as Nifong investigated the allegations that a stripper was raped and beaten at a March 2006 party thrown by Duke's lacrosse team, he charged "forward toward condemnation and injustice," weaving a "web of deception that has continued up through this hearing."
"Mr. Nifong did not act as a minister of justice, but as a minister of injustice," Brocker said.
The verdicts and the punishment did not appear to surprise Nifong, who acknowledged during sometimes tearful testimony Friday that he would likely be punished for getting "carried away a little bit" when talking about the case.
During Saturday's closing arguments, Williamson repeatedly interrupted Nifong's attorney, Dudley Witt, as he discussed the DNA testing.
Williamson questioned why it took several months for the defense to get DNA test results that found genetic material from several men in the accuser's underwear and body, but none from any lacrosse player.
"It wasn't just one little oversight," Williamson said later. "This was conduct over an extended period in a very high-profile case."
Aware of those test results, Nifong pressed ahead with the case anyway and won indictments against Dave Evans, Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty. State prosecutors later concluded the three players were "innocent" victims of a rogue prosecutor's "tragic rush to accuse."
Nifong made "multiple, egregious mistakes" as he pursued the charges, but not intentionally, his attorney said in closing statements.
"It didn't click," Witt said as he tried to explain one of his client's errors. "His mind is just his mind. That's the way it works. It just didn't click."
Brocker said Nifong had to have known he was making improper comments to reporters. Nifong said he regretted some of his statements, including a confident proclamation that he wouldn't allow Durham to become known for "a bunch of lacrosse players from Duke raping a black girl."
He also focused on when Nifong learned about the full extent of the DNA test results and when he shared that information with the defense.
Nifong gave defense attorneys an initial report on the DNA testing in May 2006 that said private lab DNA Security Inc. had been unable to find a conclusive match between the accuser and any lacrosse players.
But lab director Brian Meehan testified this week that he told Nifong as early as April 10, 2006 — a week before Seligmann and Finnerty were indicted — about the more detailed test results.
Nifong testified that when he gave the defense the initial report, he "believed at the time that I had given them everything."
The disciplinary hearing committee had the choice of suspending Nifong's law license or taking it away entirely.
Nifong told the panel hearing the case Friday that he would resign from his post as Durham County district attorney over his handling of the rape charges.
The players' attorneys have pledged to seek criminal contempt charges next week in Durham.
Will the DNC now put him in the Party leadership?
I just tried to send Duke University an e-mail telling them they were next, but their site is down. Immagine that.
I’d prefer disembowelment myself.
THEY ARE NOT INNOCENT!
First, they are MALE!
Second, as males, they desire to have sex with FEMALES!
Lastly, THEY HAVE SHOWN NO REMORSE FOR THE FIRST TWO CRIMES!
Agreed. It’s a hard lesson to learn. At least the state AG said the kids were “innocent” and did not try to let Nifong have the wiggle room of it being “not proved.” Perhaps Durham will need to raise their taxes to pay for it. Duke too may be in for some surprises.
Well, wait a minute; has he been disbarred or not?
I don`t know if I heard it right, but today on the radio I heard something about their Professors barring them from class? Is that true? If so forget it, these guys are going to own that college.
Should have kept my mouth shut. The microphones have been shut off.
Friedman (bald gray haired Nifong defense atty)has a filthy mouth.
Now he can be an “advisor” to Hillary.
Not yet..They said he was found guilty today.
http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=3285862&page=1
I guess we`ll find out Monday if he is disbarred but why even wait, he is finished. There is no way in hell he is getting just a written reprimand, not when this a-hole opened a flood gate of lawsuits that are going to come raining down. His next stop is McDonalds “Hello, my name is Mike Nifong, may I take your order?”
Nifong conceded to disbarrment. The judge explained that by law they still have to deliberate to determine punishment. But it is very unlikely they will come back with anything less.
The panel has been fairly hostile to Nifong’s defense throughout the trial, and found him guilty on just about every count.
Everything Nifong has done has been very calculating. Half-apologies only when necessary, resigned as DA as conceded disbarment only when it was clear it would happen anyway.
Not to mention his crocodile tears in testimony this week in which he still insisted that “something” happen and Mangum is still a “victim”.
I hate to say it, but at the time the election was being held, Freepers who knew the city of Durham said that the two other candidates were even worse than Nifong.
Yahoo news says that the parents of the falsely accused are going to seek criminal, not civil, at least not yet, charges against the disgraceful one this coming week.
Had it been me, I would be in prison and he would be sucking up the swill from the public troth. I don't have money.
He should do the combined sentences that he sought to impose on the innocent.
The “Committee of 88” are unrepentent P.C. Marxist Duke Professors who slandered the Duke boys in hateful full page ads.
Lacrosse team members (far more than just the 3 boys picked at random for prosecution) were failed and/or given unjustified low marks in their classes, not to mentioned again slandered by these same academics and shamed in front of other students.
Nifong needs to be in JAIL along with the twit that started this whole thing,,,,,WHY isn’t she being prosecuted??? Anyone??? Bueller? Anyone???? WHY?????
The panel said they would come back with a final punishment today.
That’s a sad commentary on Durham.
“...The moral of that story is kow who you are voting for and don’t elect scum...”
That moral applies to the American people who elected the scum that is currently in the US Congress.
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