Duke lacrosse prosecutor faces own trial

[oberliner]

Source: Associated Press

RALEIGH, N.C. - More than a year after shocking allegations emerged about Duke University's lacrosse team, prosecutor Mike Nifong was back in court Tuesday — this time as the defendant.

The North Carolina State Bar charged the Durham County district attorney with several violations of the state's rules of professional conduct, all tied to his handling of the lacrosse case.

If convicted by a disciplinary commission hearing the case, he could be stripped of his license to practice law in the state.

Nifong won indictments against three lacrosse players last year after a woman hired as a stripper for a team party in March 2006 said she was raped. One of three had graduated, but Duke suspended the other two. Criticism of Nifong's evidence and handling of the case increased through the summer. Then, when the bar filed its initial ethics charges, Nifong turned the case over to the state attorney general, who dropped all the charges.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070612/ap_on_re_us/duke_lacrosse;_ylt=AnLs7Bg_8xh8WE7y7cAEU3Cs0NUE

[bluestateguy]

1. And next, Crystal Gail Mangum.

For obstruction of justice.

[BootinUp]

2. Dang uppity prosecutors

they should make an example outta him. :sarcasm:

Actually, I think this is going overboard.

[Occulus]

3. Yeah.

It's not like he ruined innocent lives or anything.

Don't give me any tripe about how they behaved at the party. Their behavior does not earn them a wrongful accusation and a lying, vindictive prosecutor.

May his jury nail him to the wall, and may his career be permenantly over.

[BootinUp]

4. When a presumed victim

lies as in this case there is going to be damage most of the time no matter who the prosecutor is. The prosecutor in this case didn't strike me as vindictive just that this case was a bit too much for him. Taking away his law license seems extreme to me.

on edit substitute presumed victim for witness.

[LisaL]

6. I don't think you actually know much about the case, do you?

[BootinUp]

7. Probably not enough

But it does seem like people are assuming they know the prosecutors motive for pursuing the case when that is clearly speculation.

[LisaL]

8. Your post was #2 on the thread, and no one has claimed anything

about Nifong's motive, before you chipped in, and claimed it was going overboard. Do you feel such sympathy for all the prosecutors that are put on trial, or is there something special about Nifong specifically?

[BootinUp]

10. I wasnt commenting on DU'ers at

that point just the trial. I'll bow out of this thread at this point, I already stated that perhaps I don't know as much as others, if you feel like making any more comments on my posts ** in this thread I mean ** they will most likely not be read by me as I am not going to further agitate in this thread.

edited to clarify.

[bluestateguy]

9. He is an uppity prosecutor, and he needs to be put in his place

Indeed,

[yardwork]

13. I don't think that this is going overboard at all.

I don't care WHY he did what he did, but he's an example of how the justice system in this country can rampantly destroy people's lives. In this particular case, I'm not sure that those accused have had their lives ruined, but there is no question that innocent people have been railroaded in NC (and elsewhere) - some of those innocent people have spent decades in jail or even been executed on trumped-up charges.

There's no excuse and we have to insist that the justice system behave honestly, or we might as well be living under the Nazis. It's not a long step from what Nifong did to what the feds are doing to people in Gitmo. Not a long step at all.

[Bacchus39]

17. neither do I

the State decided not to pursue charges against the alleged victim. However, they absolutely have to go after Nifong after his egregious misuse of tremendous power.

[Lasher]

25. I wonder if the lacrosse players would be in jail right now if they had been poor.

I remember seeing people being released from prison after having served many years, when DNA testing proved they were innocent of crimes of which they had been convicted. Those cases left a lasting impression on me.

How many have been wrongfully prosecuted just because some Barney Fife felt like he had to arrest someone? The older I get the less respect I have for our criminal 'justice' system.

[SayWhatYo]

33. I posed a similar question before, but I find a flaw with it, at least in this case.

In this case it seems that if the accused were not "rich white boys"(or at least appeared to be), then it wouldn't have been a story at all. In turn, the jackass Nifong wouldn't have seen it as an opportunity to boost his own career.

However, in other cases, I think you're right... I mean just look at the recent cases in which some minor teenager gets arrested for getting a BJ from someone two years younger than him......

[jazzjunkysue]

5. I caught total hell for calling this case bogus, when it broke.

Let's all remember the personal attacks, and try not to knee-jerk the next time someone offers a differing opinion.

Most people who manipulate evidence and procedure are motivated by either $$ or political power, or both. For this guy, it looks like a pure power grab, for his own re-election.

I hope his career is over, now.

[Socal31]

11. Lock him up for 6 months.

Let him get a taste of what he almost did to those guys. Motherfu*kers like that make me sick.

[oneinok]

12. Where are the marches?

Ah, when this crap started the media was filled with hundreds of women marching to send these Duke players to jail. Where are those marchers today?

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[NeedleCast]

18. On to some new witch hunt I imagine

They didn't get to burn anyone at the stake on this one, so they'll be gnashing their teeth to find a new target.

[Posteritatis]

19. Plenty are probably still marching, I'd bet. (nt)

[Mike Daniels]

26. There's the still odd poster or two who insists the "rich white boys" got away with it

despite all supporting evidence to the contrary.

I'm actually surprised the holdouts haven't shown up on this post yet.

[bluestateguy]

27. Yes there are.

They are still angry that Nifong and Crystal Gail Mangum deprived them of a nice Lifetime Channel story: the rich white boys victimizing the innocent, salt of the earth poor black girl.

They are still very bitter.

[superconnected]

28. Or they're just plain mad that she never had a lawyer and it never went to trail.

After all that's what that was all about - stopping a woman accusing white guys of rape from getting to trial. It only took 50 lawyers and a year to stop her for that "slamdunk" case.

And of course going after anyone who would allow such a thing go to trial.

It would be better had it gone to trail and then a judge and jury deem the accuser unbelieveable there, than simply refusing it to be heard. Electing a new prosecutor to represent the accuser and him deciding he's going to not represent her just puts it at 50:50 wether a prosecuter would take it.

And of course makes everyone that believes a women doesn't have a right to accuse someone of rape because hey she may be lying, get a warmfuzzy feeling that somehow nonguilt has been proved because it wasn't heard by a jury. Fortunatley for most men being accused of rape whether they did it or not, it will get heard by a jury. They have a chance to clear their name then, which these guys still haven't had. People here wrongly think they have, but no judge or jury ruled anything. Only a prosecutor assigned because she didn't have a lawyer said he wouldn't take it to court.

Now back to attacking nifong for - omg, defending the victim. I think the problem myself is that he broke the law and that should be addressed, not that he didn't have a right to defend her in the first place which is the vibe I'm picking up.

Now back to me wondering why it was so important it never go to trial if they had a slamdunk case.

[LisaL]

31. Totally ridiculous post. I think you are hopelessly confused.

Nifong's job was not to "defend" the "victim." He is a prosecutor, he represents the state. Prosecutors do not represent accusers. New prosecutor was not "elected to represent the accuser."
AG took over the case because Nifong asked him to, since he was facing bar charges.
AG not only declared there was insufficient evidence to go forward with the case, he found that there was no credible evidence that the crime took place, and he declared accused were innocent.
As for you, I don't think you show even basic comprehension of the law.

[bluestateguy]

32. There was never sufficient evidence to go to trial

A certain bar has to be met to send a case to trial, and Nifong didn't meet it. He presented bogus evidence to the grand jury from a dishonest accuser and hid exculpatory evidence, all while making statements to the media that the case was open and shut.

Furthermore, the Attorney General of North Carolina and Nifong himself said in dropping the charges that the men were innocent, not "not guilty" as in there was insufficient evidence to mount a case, but innocent.

In our justice system one does not and should not have to always stand trial to clear his or her name. If a case is demonstrably false and lacking any basis in reality, a good prosecutor has a duty to drop the charges.

[Solon]

34. Prosecutors represent the State, not the percieved victim...

You seem to have no clue as to how courts operate, do you? First, there is a standard of evidence to allow a trial to go forward. Judges dismiss trials all the time due to lack of evidence, or evidence that contradicts the prosecutor's case. The fact of the matter is that the players did nothing illegal, were falsely accused, and the prosecutor acted in a criminal manner, withholding evidence, etc. during this entire fiasco.

[CreekDog]

15. At least he's being accused of something he DID do

Unlike what he did to the LaCrosse players.

Jerk.

[ButterflyBlood]

16. Hopefully he'll get locked up too

Scumbag.

[TankLV]

20. Scumbag - needs to be prosecuted to the full extent possible...

Absolutely disgusting the way too many "womyn" here had those INNOCENT boys lynched and tarred and feathered...

Absolutely disgusting...

[rayofreason]

21. Nifong has injured everyone-

The innocent Duke students, the legal profession, and the real victims of sex crimes who may go without justice as a result of his misdeeds.

The sooner he is given a fair trial based on evidence, the better (except for Nifong).

[superconnected]

29. no more than any lawyer who broke the law ever did.

[marshall]

35. He injured Crystal Gail Mangum as well

She's definitely not innocent in this mess, but prosecutors across the nation have confused, drug addled, mentally disturbed people make false allegations every day because they are mad or crazy or trying to dodge their own charges. He should have referred her to mental health people, either in jail or in the community, and never went ahead with the charges. Her life is a mess because of this case. The one rainbow she has is that Jesse Jackson is supposed to pay her way through college.

[sleipnir]

22. He should serve hard time for this.

Criminal prosecution for political gain. Nifong is nothing less than a criminal and should be handed a good, long sentence in prison, if found guilty.

However, he'll probably just get off by having his law license revoked and face a certain civil court trial.

But, so should the accuser, I think she should serve a couple years for what she put those men through in their lives. It should send a message that revenge through the police/courts is illegal and will be dealt with firmly.

[LisaL]

23. It's a bar trial. The worse they can do is to disbar him.

They can't put him into prison.

[Posteritatis]

24. And disbarment would be high on the "unendurable suck" list for most lawyers. (nt)

[superconnected]

30. oh gawd.

Do you even know what happened there?

[knight_of_the_star]

36. What she did can land her in prison

Filing a false police report as well as making false claims to the police are felonies in most states in this country.