Duke Lacrosse DA Ethics Trial Begins

(CBS/AP)  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.

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.

"This didn't have to happen, and the horrible consequences were entirely foreseeable," Katherine Jean, the bar official prosecuting Nifong, said during her 25-minute opening statement. "The harm done to these three young men and their families and the justice system of North Carolina is devastating."

The state prosecutor argued Nifong was motivated by political ambition, CBS News national correspondent Byron Pitts reports. In a hotly contested re-election campaign, he played "the race card" as an appeal to black voters.

The hearing, which normally takes a day, could last until Saturday.

As it started Tuesday, the hearing commission chairman promised a quick verdict. If convicted, Nifong could be disbarred.

Reporters and observers — including the mothers of David Evans and Collin Finnerty, two of the once-charged and now cleared lacrosse players — packed the state Court of Appeals courtroom. Finnerty and the third player, Reade Seligmann, are expected to attend the trial at some point. Attorneys for all three players were in the courtroom Tuesday.

Nifong aggressively pursued the case against the players, at one point calling the lacrosse team "a bunch of hooligans" in a newspaper interview.

That interview, along with several others made in the case's early days, formed the basis of the bar's initial complaint against Nifong, which said he made misleading and inflammatory comments to the media about the athletes.

"I believe you will hear him testify that he regrets making those statements," said Nifong's attorney, David Freedman, in his opening statement.

Freedman recounted the very early days of the case, highlighting evidence he said led Nifong to believe a crime had occurred. "It is not unethical to pursue what someone may believe to be an unwinnable case," he said.

After months of silence and weeks to prepare his defense, Nifong's lawyer made two basic claims, reports Pitts. He claimed that Nifong hadn't actually prosecuted a case in years and was rusty. And that he didn't "withhold evidence," but rather failed to read an 1800-page report. Nifong's lawyer also claimed that the prosecutor never knew key DNA evidence was omitted.

Some in the court room laughed openly, reports Pitts.

The bar also alleged that Nifong withheld evidence from defense attorneys and that he lied to both to the court and bar investigators.

In her opening, Jean detailed Nifong's meetings with the director of a DNA laboratory he hired, at which she said Nifong learned that none of the players' DNA matched that material found in and on the accuser. The bar has accused Nifong of keeping those test results from the defense.

Nifong asked the North Carolina Attorney General's office to take over the lacrosse prosecution in January. By then, most experts and legal observers had long since concluded the case could not be won.

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper agreed in April and dropped all charges against the three players. In a stunning rebuke, Cooper said there was no rape or attack, calling the indicted players "innocent" victims of a rogue prosecutor's "tragic rush to accuse."

Mike Pressler, the former lacrosse coach of Duke University, says he expects the prosecutor will be punished for the botched rape investigation.

Pressler, who now coaches at Bryant University in Rhode Island, told a Providence radio station that Nifong is going to face a severe penalty for leading the investigation that targeted three of his former players.

"I think his reputation is already gone," says Andrew Cohen, CBS News Legal Analyst. "What's at stake now is his livelihood."

[infidel_us]

krg12171936,

I agree 100%

[krg12171936]

That Idiot (Nifong) not only should be disbarred, he should be sent to prison for 30 years.
And as for that black b@#$h that brought the false charges against those young men, she should be fined $1,000,000 and sent to prison for 30 years so she can think about what she did. She has ruined the lives of these young men and their families forever. That is a most serious thing to do, accuse someone of rape in hopes of monetary gain. Talk about racism here is a clear cut case of it.

[luigi999-2009]

Somebody get a rope!

[ioweign]

In addition to Nifong, the state should put on trial all those that prodded the idiot Nifong to lynch the innocent Duke Lacrosse players. In particular, the state must try the hypocrite, racist, hate-mongers "Hymietown" Jackson and the God Bigot "Tawana Brawley" Sharpton, who are every bit as guilty as the idiot Nifong in this gross miscarriage of justice.
Posted by VastR-WCon at 03:16 PM : Jun 12, 2007

I'll second that. Very good Post!!

[xzavierbrown]

but he worked really hard to stroke the race card....

[cmp271]

What constitution does this guy practice law by? I hope they film this so it can be shown on Comedy central for some of the responses and defense.

He needs to be strung up and sued for what he did. As well as the ho who started it!!! She needs to be prosecuted too for what she started and put her own hometown through. Tar and feather her.

Where is the apology from the racist twins-Sharpton and Jackson. I hope the parents go after them next, and the Black Panthers are also charged with a hate crime-which is exactly what they were doing when they came to the campus. While we are at it let's fire and sue the President of Duke for suspending these kids. Since when is it guilty before proven innocent. I am glad I am not at that school.

[aznyron-2009]

I hope justice prevails here this man should go to jail to get a taste of what he was going to do to those young boys and he should be disbarred the jury is not out on this one he is guilty on all charges that was not blind justice that was a lynching that failed because the kids came from families with some wealth and was able to fight the system as for Sharpton & jackson maybe they should hold his hand in the prison cell because they instigated class warfare among Blk & Wht sadly we are not color blind yet but that was no excuse to destry those kids and damage them for life

[hahaho123]

Where are all the black leaders who were so vocal about this being a race issue ? Why aren't they coming forward and speaking out against the injustice these young men faced because of their race ? It is true that hypocrisy comes in all shapes, sizes and COLOR !

[heresmy2cent]

This guy will not be disbarred.

Even though most lawyers are cannibalistic by nature, they have an internal instinct to protect each other.

The court will go through usual ceremonial motions and give him a little reprimand for being a idiot.

I agree with a woman in a false accusation case doing the time the accused would have done. For some reason the DA declined to press charges.
Posted by blindersoff at 01:30 PM : Jun 12, 2007

It was the AG Roy Cooper that declined to press charges because he thought that "she really believed all the stories she told" A real mixed up woman