Just in! - Duke D.A. Barred from Bar

Looks like yesterday's crocodile tears and offer to resign were not enough to convince the ethics panel. They told him this afternoon "You can't quit, You're Fired!"

N.C. panel disbars Duke prosecutor

By AARON BEARD, Associated Press Writer

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.
[...]
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."

Looks like from now on the only bar Mr. Nifong will be addressing is the one with whiskey bottles and beer taps.

And it isn't over for him, either. Attorneys for the three lacrosse players are planning to seek criminal contempt charges, too.
N.C. panel disbars Duke prosecutor - Yahoo! News

Duke lacrosse prosecutor plans to quit

The DA who so aggressively pursued the Duke lacrosse players he alleged raped a woman at a party has announced he is quitting. He is currently on trial himself for allegations of ethics violations in the case. He kept insisting the three young men were guilty and must be prosecuted even as the case fell apart. The accuser kept changing her story as new facts came to light, and there was a total lack of forensic evidence of wrongdoing.

RALEIGH, N.C. — Testifying in defense of his conduct in the sexual assault case against three Duke University lacrosse players, Durham County District Attorney Michael Nifong cried and conceded that he made mistakes, apologized to the accused and their families for the "pain" the prosecution had caused and announced his intention to resign.

"To the extent that my actions have caused pain to Finnertys, the Seligmanns, the Evans', I apologize," he said Friday during the emotional conclusion to his direct testimony at a bar hearing. "To the extent that my actions have brought disrespect or disrepute to the bar, to my community, I apologize."
[...]
A three-person panel of the North Carolina State Bar is considering charges that Nifong violated ethics rules while pursuing rape allegations, brought by a stripper hired to perform at a team party, against the three players. The state attorney general in April declared that the players were "innocent."

The bar complaint accuses Nifong of making prejudicial statements in the case's early stages, of lying to a judge and of withholding exculpatory DNA evidence. If he is found guilty, the panel could suspend his law license or disbar him.
[...]
Nifong denied that the months of withholding the DNA evidence — which showed other men's DNA present but not that of the accused players — was malicious. Instead, he said it was a result of an oversight caused in part by his lack of careful notes.

There are a lot of college students who read this blog. Can you imaging having this conversation with your parents? Parents, can you imaging having this conversation with your child?...

The ramifications of his pursuit of the allegations also became clearer Friday, as Reade Seligmann testified about the effect on his family.

Seligmann choked back tears and brought tears to the eyes of family members when he described how he learned that he had been picked out of a lineup by the accuser. He was in his lawyer's office, he said, when the secretary came in and said, "Mike Nifong is on the phone."

"He picks up the phone. You could see the color in his face just changing. ... The room was spinning," Seligmann said. "My dad just fell to the floor, and I just sat on the ground, and I said, 'My life is over.' " He then called his mother.

"I said, 'Mom are you alone right now?' She said, 'Yeah, what's going on?' " he testified. "I said, 'She picked me.' I could hear her on the other end of the phone. The life was just sucked right out of her."

As the parent of a college student, I cringe to think of it.

The outcome of the hearing may be a recommendation to disbar Nifong. It couldn't happen to a nicer guy.

But how are the three young men who have had their lives completely disrupted going to get the last year back? You may recall they were vilified in the press as being "spoiled rich kids" with no sense of responsibility. Although they were lacrosse players, when you read the coverage from back then it is easy to see how the DA, news media, and of course the blogosphere were simply substituting "lacrosse team" for "fraternity" in their rush to judgment.

Duke lacrosse prosecutor plans to quit | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle

Former Duke Players Cleared of All Charges - New York Times

This is not exactly a fraternity story, but is fairly close. At least in the kind of responses it raised when it was first reported.

The Duke lacrosse team players who were accused of rape, 'sexual offenses', and kidnapping have been cleared of all charges. The state attorney general concluded there was no evidence to proceed with a case.

An independent investigation “showed clearly that there is insufficient evidence to proceed,” Roy A. Cooper, the state attorney general, said at a televised news conference. “ We believe these individuals are innocent.”

He said the accounts of the events given by the woman who made the accusations were so inconsistent that they were not credible. “She contradicts herself,” Mr. Cooper said.

The decision brings to an end a 13-month ordeal for the young men, two of whom were dismissed from Duke because of the charges.

David F. Evans, 24, of Annapolis, Md.; Reade W. Seligmann, 21, of Essex Falls, N.J., and Collin Finnerty, 20, of Garden City, N.Y., were initially charged with rape, sexual offense and kidnapping. One of two women hired to strip at the lacrosse team’s spring break party in March 2006 accused them of raping and assaulting her in a bathroom of an off-campus house.

The rape charges were dropped in December, after the woman changed a key detail in the case, saying she could not be sure what had penetrated her when she said she was gang-raped. The woman changed her story after DNA tests showed no traces of DNA from any of the three defendants or any other Duke lacrosse player on her body or clothes, while traces of other male DNA were present.

The case touched nerves of race, sex and privilege, both nationally and in Durham, because the accuser was a poor, black local woman and the students were relatively affluent, white out-of-staters. It also tapped into a debate about the off-the-field behavior of college athletes and the proper role of big-money sports on America’s university campuses.

There is lots more in the linked New York Times article, including a local prosecutor who was trying to win an election off the case, Political correctness gone completely off the rails, "poor black girl" vs. "rich white boys", bungled investigations, a "victim" who could not seem to tell the same story twice in a row, and a complete lack of forensic evidence. This tale has "TV Movie" written all over it.

As former Secretary of Labor Ray Donovan might say, "where do they go to get their reputations back?"

Too bad Don Imus has been gagged. I bet he would have some interesting comments.

Former Duke Players Cleared of All Charges - New York Times