Posted at 4:37 a.m., Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Ethics trial to start for attorney in Duke lacrosse case
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 today — 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.
His trial is expected to run for five days, and as it started Tuesday, the hearing commission chairman promised a quick verdict. If convicted, Nifong could be disbarred.
Well before the start of the hearing, 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 to watch. Finnerty and the third player, Reade Seligmann, were expected to attend the trial at some point, as were their attorneys.
Nifong won indictments against the three last year after a woman hired to perform as a stripper for a lacrosse team party in March 2006 said she was raped there. He aggressively pursued the case, 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.
The bar later added allegations that Nifong withheld evidence from defense attorneys and that he lied to both to the court and bar investigators.
Worried the pending ethics charges might result in an unfair trial, 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."
Nifong arrived at court early Tuesday with his wife and teenage son, who took seats in the front row behind the defense table. Nifong is expected to testify.
His attorney, David Freedman, did not return calls seeking comment this week, but last week, he insisted his client had no plans to heed calls from his critics to resign.
"Public opinion is not going to weigh in on how the proceeding develops and will not weigh in on the ultimate decision by the bar," Freedman said. "Our purpose is not to sway public opinion but to present his case to the State Bar."
