Duke DA Apologizes To Lacrosse Players

(CBS/AP)  The local prosecutor who charged three Duke lacrosse players with raping a stripper apologized to the athletes Thursday, acknowledging that the North Carolina attorney general's decision to drop the case was correct.

"To the extent that I made judgments that ultimately proved to be incorrect, I apologize to the three students that were wrongly accused," Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong said in a statement.

"I also understand that whenever someone has been wrongly accused, the harm caused by the accusations might not be immediately undone merely by dismissing them," Nifong added. "It is my sincere desire that the actions of Attorney General Cooper will serve to remedy any remaining injury that has resulted from these cases."

Nifong refused to answer any questions after handing the statement to an Associated Press reporter outside his office in Durham.

Jim Cooney, attorney for former player Reade Seligmann, responded bitterly to the apology.

"You can accept an apology from someone who knows all the facts and simply makes an error," Cooney said. "If a person refuses to know all the facts and then makes a judgment, that's far worse particularly when that judgment destroys lives."

In a blistering assessment of the case, North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper on Wednesday dropped all charges against the players, all but ensuring that only one person in the whole scandal will be held to account: Nifong.

"This case shows the enormous consequences of overreaching by a prosecutor," Cooper said, adding that the three athletes were railroaded by a district attorney who ignored increasingly flimsy evidence in a "tragic rush to accuse."

The three white Duke lacrosse players — Seligmann, David Evans and Collin Finnerty — were accused of sexually assaulting a black stripper at a party. They were indicted last spring on charges of rape, kidnapping and sexual offense after the woman told police she was assaulted in the bathroom at an off-campus house during a team party at which she had been hired to perform.

Nifong, running for reelection in a heavily black district when the case first started, openly proclaimed the players' guilt.

"There's no doubt in my mind that she was raped and assaulted at this location," Nifong said last year.

The rape charges were dropped months ago; the other charges remained until Wednesday.

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Lesley Stahl will have an exclusive interview with the three players on "60 Minutes" this Sunday at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

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Collin Finnerty's father, Kevin, told CBS' The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith that he is bitter toward Nifong.

"I feel like we're religious people, yet in my heart I have little room for forgiveness," he said.

Nifong is facing ethics charges and possible disbarment, reports CBS News correspondent Kelly Wallace. In addition, North Carolina Rep. Walter Jones has called for a federal investigation of his handling of the duke lacrosse case.

"What Mr. Nifong has done, in my opinion, is just trampled on the constitutional rights of these young men," says Jones.

Duke University law professor James Coleman speculated that Nifong used the three young men to further his political career. "I think at the beginning he believed something happened. He saw it as an opportunity to get his name out there," Coleman told The Early Show, adding of Nifong, "he rushed to judgment."

Wallace reports that Nifong's attorney, David Freedman, wouldn't comment on the specifics of the case, but urged people not to jump to conclusions.

"People who are critical of him, saying he should not have rushed to judgment, themselves, should not rush to judgment," says Freedman.

The case stirred furious debate over race, class and the privileged status of college athletes, and heightened longstanding tensions in Durham between its large working-class black population and the mostly white, mostly affluent students at the private, elite university.

Cooper, who took over the case in January after Nifong was charged with ethics violations, said his own investigation into a stripper's claim that she was sexually assaulted at a team party found nothing to corroborate her story, and "led us to the conclusion that no attack occurred."

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[dblbar]

North Carolina and the DNA testing lab should pick up the tab for the lawyers plus give each kid 1 million to restart their lives. If Sharpton and Jackson do not make PUBLIC apologies to all 3 Duke players it shows they are total hypocrits and reverse racists. Big mouths, no proof -- moral crusaders of questionable morality.
Posted by afmca at 08:07 AM : Apr 13, 2007

LOL! One million won't even TOUCH the legal fees they've already put out just to stay frickin ALIVE for the past year since this was all started (by Mr. Jackson and Mr. Sharpton by the way, standing in front of the house calling for the boy's heads)...and as far as an apology from Jackson and Sharpton.....yeah right....they only start it, they don't stick around to see the ending...conveniently.

[processor2]

Don Imus was a big enough man to apologize.

Will Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton be man enough to apologize to those innocent Duke boys for the false accusations and presumptions they stirred up in Durham, NC.

I won't be holding my breath.

...

[processor2]

Don Imus was a big enough man to apologize.

Will Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton be man enough to apologize to those innocent Duke boys for the false accusations and presumptions they stirred up in Durham, NC.

I won't be holding my breath.

...

[processor2]

Don Imus was a big enough man to apologize.

Will Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton be man enough to apologize to those innocent Duke boys for the false accusations and presumptions they stirred up in Durham, NC.

I won't be holding my breath.

...

[advanceus]

Sharpton and Jackson are glory grabbing idiots!! IF there is racial tension in the U.S. it is because of people like them. Their only interest is in themselves not what they are harping on at the moment. If there is any racial problems resulting from this the the Imus situation they should be charged with conspiracy, because it will be because of their loud mouths. I think we would all be able to get along alot better if people like Sharpton and Jackson were not allowed to get in the middle of things. They have never benefited the black Americans, but the blacks think they have because they always seem to get in the lime light and that appears to be their only goal. If I have missed something that they have done to benefit anyone please enlighten me.

[panhandlpete]

Now Al Sharpton needs to apologize to them and resign from his radio show. It's only fair and the decent thing to do.
Posted by kevsan1 at 09:28 PM : Apr 12, 2007

Great Idea!!! But, never happen. Why? Cause white folks don't flock together, and have been pushed down through reverse discrimination until they are afraid to be politically incorrect about anything. Can you think of any one who dares to say discrimination against whites by blacks is practiced, openly in public, via their songs, their TV stations, their radio shows, their Universities, and their mouthpieces?

Al Sharpton gets my vote to be fired from his radio show because he is a RACIST who promotes racial prejudice, not harmony. When you go out and say all the things he said against those three young men, and others in the past, how can anyone NOT call him a RACIST?

[afmca]

North Carolina and the DNA testing lab should pick up the tab for the lawyers plus give each kid 1 million to restart their lives. If Sharpton and Jackson do not make PUBLIC apologies to all 3 Duke players it shows they are total hypocrits and reverse racists. Big mouths, no proof -- moral crusaders of questionable morality.

[stlcrdfn]

What happens now to the team coach. He is also a victim of this scam because he lost his job. Why is there no mention of compensation for him? He lost his job due to this fiasco!

[honest_news]

At the very least, the State of North Carolina has a moral and legal obligation to pay restitution to the families of the three falsely accused students and to the other players adversely impacted by the DA's abuse of his office. This would include not only their $5 million in attorneys fees, but also compensation for the lost year of their lives.

If North Carolina in turn wishes to recoup some or all of this loss from Nifong, so be it, but the state needs to be held accountable for the false accusations and incompetence of its official(s), and by doing so learn that there is a real cost to a rush to judgment and political expediency at the expense of innocent lives.

[kailumego1]

You people are really full of yourselves, this man was doing his job, under pressure, of course, but he did his job.

How many prosecuting attorneys you know of, have been disbarred, because they went ahead a tried a case based on circumstantial evidence????? Two women were just convicted of killing their spouses based on circumstantial evidence, so where was the outrage.
You people scream vociferously over Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson misrepresenting themselves and acting too overzealous, jumping to conclusions before researching all the evidence.

However, if the legal system wasn't so jaded and arbitrary filled with capriciousnesses then there would be no need for an Al Sharpton or Jessie Jackson.

This legal system has been and continues to be tainted by "institutional racism", of which this case is a pivotal example how the law works for some and not others.

As the attorney mentioned these three young men are lucky, because they are a privilege class in society, and as such, are afforded special circumstances, which most defendants aren't.

It's because of this injustice that lingers over the legal system that Sharpton and Jackson feel compelled to overreact or oversimplify an otherwise uncomplicated situation.

One thing that is crystal clear, a majority of whites are going to stick together no matter right/wrong. It's too bad blacks haven't learned this valued lesson.