Maverick wrote: ↑Sat Mar 12, 2022 8:11 pm
Farfromgeneva wrote: ↑Sat Mar 12, 2022 7:50 pm
Maverick wrote: ↑Sat Mar 12, 2022 7:42 pm
Farfromgeneva wrote: ↑Sat Mar 12, 2022 7:39 pm
Do you truly not know or is that a loaded/rhetorical question? The administration cancelled their seasons over a social issue that was fabricated and a horrific travesty of the criminal justice system as well as an abrogation of the administration to protect their wards (students) choosing to favor the academics who behaved atrociously.
Ah that makes sense. They f'd up so let's neg the cavs for that. Your logic and reason are non existent sir
That’s absurd. Their rights were stolen by a district attorney who was disbarred. The administrations job should’ve been to protect them rather than professors putting ads in the paper. You’re out of your mind. By your logic the entire university’s permissiveness of bad behavior is a stain given the rolling stone piece.
A girls life was taken away. The brattons.
Duke took their rights not the DA lets at least be factual. That's how I prefer my debates
A. I addressed the mistreatment by the institution.
B. It’s a fact that the DA violated their right.
C. It took all of five seconds and a little no worry to pull all those pieces of many arrests and issues of current and former UVA players which I can see you choose to avoid acknowledging.
On December 28, 2006, the North Carolina State Bar filed ethics charges against Nifong over his conduct in the case, accusing him of making public statements that were "prejudicial to the administration of justice" and of engaging in "conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation."[54] The seventeen-page document accuses Nifong of violating four rules of professional conduct, listing more than fifty examples of statements he made to the media.[55]
The State Bar filed a second round of ethics charges on January 24, 2007.[56] In this document, it accused Nifong of a "systematic abuse of prosecutorial discretion ... prejudicial to the administration of justice" when he withheld DNA evidence to mislead the court.[57]
Nifong's lawyers filed a report asking for dismissal of some of the charges against him on March 19, arguing that his actions had not prevented the defendants from a fair trial since defense attorneys received a DNA report before a trial date was set. The State Bar denied the request, pointing out that North Carolina law "is unambiguous: Anyone subject to an NTO [Nontestimonial Identification Order] must be given any report of test results as soon as such a report is available." The Bar continued that "Nifong is effectively arguing that he can make false statements to a court which result in the entry of an order, and then use the order that is based on his misrepresentations to claim he committed no discovery violation."[58][59]
At an April 13 hearing, another request for dismissal of charges was denied. Nifong's team argued that the law about revealing exculpatory evidence to the defense was too vague about a timetable. Attorneys for the State Bar pointed out that it was only through diligent efforts of the Duke players' defense team that the DNA report was finally made available to them. The formal ethics hearing began on June 12 in Raleigh.[60]
On June 15, Nifong took the stand to testify in his own defense. During the testimony, he apologized to the families of the Duke athletes and stated that he would resign as district attorney. Joseph Cheshire, attorney for David Evans, one of the accused players, dismissed the apology as "a cynical political attempt to save his law license".[61] During the trial, Nifong acknowledged he knew there was no DNA evidence connecting lacrosse players Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty to the 28-year-old woman who accused them of attacking her when he indicted them on charges of rape, sexual offense and kidnapping a year prior.[62]
Disbarment Edit
Wikinews has related news:
US prosecutor Mike Nifong to be disbarred for ethics violations
On June 16, 2007, the North Carolina State Bar Disciplinary Committee unanimously voted to disbar Nifong after delivering a guilty verdict to 27 of 32 charges. The committee found Nifong's previous disciplinary record and acknowledgment of his improper pre-trial statements were substantially outweighed by (among other things) the players' vulnerability and his failure to acknowledge the "wrongful nature of (his) conduct with respect of the handling of DNA evidence."[63]
Committee chair Lane Williamson called the case a "fiasco" and said Nifong's actions involved "dishonesty, fraud, deceit and misrepresentation." Williamson further stated, "At the time he was facing a primary, and yes, he was politically naive, but we can draw no other conclusion that those initial statements he made were to further his political ambitions." In the end, the panel concluded that "there is no discipline short of disbarment appropriate in this case given the magnitude of the offenses found."[63]
Nifong agreed to surrender his law license and said he would not appeal; through his attorney, he said that disbarment was an appropriate punishment. Nifong is the first sitting district attorney in the history of North Carolina to be disbarred.[64] Earlier in the day, Nifong offered to voluntarily surrender his law license. However, Williamson said that the panel had to issue a ruling, and issued its disbarment order shortly thereafter.[65] Under North Carolina law, the order took effect 30 days after Nifong received it in writing.[62]
Immediately after the hearing, lawyers for the three players said they would seek to have Nifong held in criminal contempt of court for his false statements.[66] The lawyers added that calls for a federal civil rights investigation into the matter weren't out of line.[67] The players' attorneys called for an independent investigation into the case, and as of June 2007 Cooper was considering whether to open a criminal probe into the affair.[68]
The players' attorneys said on June 18 that their clients were very likely to file a civil suit against Nifong to recover their legal expenses and restore their reputations. It is not known how much they can recover; Nifong had no income aside from his salary as DA, and public records indicate that he has no significant assets other than his home in Durham, real estate in western North Carolina and retirement accounts. According to The News and Observer, the players incurred $3 million in legal costs.[66]
On June 18, Nifong submitted his resignation to Governor Easley and Durham County Chief Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson, saying he would leave office on July 13. Hudson said that Nifong should have resigned immediately, saying that defense attorneys could challenge Nifong's authority. Easley, a former prosecutor and state attorney general, also felt that Nifong should have resigned immediately.[62]
Early on June 19, Hudson issued an order suspending Nifong from office with pay.[69] Under North Carolina law,[70] this was the first step in a process that allows the chief judge of a county to remove that county's district attorney from office. Hudson also appointed a Raleigh attorney as special prosecutor to oversee the removal proceeding.[71] A Durham resident, Beth Brewer had asked Hudson to remove Nifong in February on the grounds that Nifong engaged in willful misconduct and brought disrepute upon his office – two of the criteria required for removing a district attorney from office. This process had been used only once before, when the district attorney for New Hanover and Pender counties was removed from office in 1995 for making a racial slur.[72] In April 2021, the statute was used a third time to remove DA Greg Newman from office.[73] NC Superior Court Judge Robert Ervin found that DA Greg Newman committed willful misconduct and perjury, notably in a 2015 child rape case.[74] Newman's removal marked the first time an elected DA was removed from office by crime victims, unrepresented by attorneys, for failing to prosecute violent offenders.[75] The NC Coalition Against Sexual Assault issued a statement in support of DA Greg Newman's victims, calling his actions "horrific" and "unforgivable".[76] The NC State Bar did not disbar Greg Newman.[77]
On June 20, Nifong began talks with the special prosecutor about the possibility of leaving office immediately, but later that day, Easley appointed Jim Hardin, Nifong's predecessor, as acting district attorney. This came hours after Easley signed a bill that would allow the governor to remove a district attorney or judge from office if he or she has been disbarred or suspended from practicing law.[78][79] Easley strongly supported the bill, which unanimously passed both houses of the legislature.[80]
Easley had let it be known that he would have removed Nifong from office immediately if he had had the authority and power to do so. It had been unclear how soon Easley could have removed Nifong under this new law. The bill does not allow a governor to remove a DA or judge until the State Bar formally issued its order of disbarment, and all appeals have been exhausted. However, as mentioned above, Nifong had said he would not appeal. Hardin was sworn in the next day, and served until September 2007, when Easley appointed Assistant District Attorney David Saacks to fill out the first half of Nifong's term. At the time of Hardin's swearing-in, negotiations were still under way between Nifong and the special prosecutor,[81] and Hudson was proceeding with the hearing to remove him for good.[82] However, according to a spokesman for the state's Administrative Office of the Courts, Nifong's tenure as DA ended with Hardin's swearing-in.[1] Nifong formally resigned from office on July 2.[citation needed]
Nifong's former assistant district attorney, Tracey Cline, was elected District Attorney in a 2008 special election and re-elected in 2010. She was removed from office herself in 2012 for, among other things, making defamatory accusations against Judge Hudson. Her license to practice law was suspended for five years in 2015 but she was not disbarred.[83][84]
On June 22, the players' lawyers filed their motion asking Superior Court Judge Osmond Smith, who presided over the case, to hold Nifong in contempt. The players also wanted Nifong to pay for the 60 to 100 hours it took to prove that he misrepresented the DNA evidence. Nifong was charged with having violated at least a dozen laws, rules and court orders designed to protect defendants' rights by playing "a game of hide and seek" with evidence that could have cleared the players. The players' motion also alleged that Nifong's misconduct "shocks the conscience and defies any notion of accident or negligence". Earlier that same month, Judge Smith had filed papers stating that he retained control over the case although the charges had been dismissed, and had the power to impose his own sanctions against Nifong.[85]
On July 25, Nifong issued a less qualified apology for his actions, saying he did not challenge Cooper's conclusion that there was "no credible evidence" to support the charges he had made. While the players' attorneys expressed skepticism about his sincerity, they did withdraw their demands that he pay for the legal work it took to ferret out the DNA evidence.[86]
In a letter addressed to the North Carolina State Bar on August 7, Nifong formally surrendered his law license. He then decried the "fundamental unfairness" with which his disbarment was conducted, contradicting his own lawyer's assertion that Nifong believed disbarment to be an appropriate punishment. To explain the physical condition of the license, Nifong said the license had been damaged "by a puppy in her chewing stage", and therefore had never been framed or displayed.[87]
Sentence and jail Edit
On September 7, 2007, after having already been disbarred, Nifong reported to the Durham County jail to serve a one-day jail sentence for contempt of court. He was held alone in a cell for his protection.[88]
