Prosecutor seeks to bow out of Duke case
DURHAM, N.C. – After months of stinging criticism about his handling of the Duke University sexual assault investigation, Durham District Attorney Michael Nifong sought to bow out of the case Friday, requesting that the North Carolina attorney general’s office handle the prosecution.
His action was welcomed by the defense team representing the three Duke lacrosse players initially accused of raping a 28-year-old stripper at a team party.
“We feel very good about this. It’s a fresh set of eyes looking at the case,” said William Cotter, of Raleigh, one of three attorneys for Collin Finnerty of Garden City, N.Y. “We think it’s more likely that they will listen to us and we will certainly be cooperative with him or her.”
The defense believes that another prosecutor would, after reviewing the contradictions of the alleged victim’s accounts and the paucity of physical evidence, drop the case.
Attorney General Roy Cooper’s office deferred questions about Nifong’s action until a news conference scheduled for today.
Nifong’s request closely follows a formal ethics complaint made by the North Carolina State Bar, charging Nifong with violating ethics rules by engaging in “dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation” and by making comments that stirred “public condemnation of the accused.” The bar complaint creates an ethical conflict that prevents Nifong from continuing the prosecution, lawyers said.
The case – involving a black accuser and white suspects – initially touched off a national debate about racism and privilege, as Nifong labeled the team from the elite university a “bunch of hooligans” and some portrayed reported actions at the party as the result of campus racism.
Since then, however, the case against the three has been staggered by contradictions in the alleged victim’s story and Nifong’s withholding of exculpatory evidence.
The victim’s account has changed repeatedly on key points. Nifong dropped rape charges against the three men Dec. 22, but they still face charges of sexual offense and kidnapping, which carry significant prison terms.
At the same time, some of Nifong’s initial statements about the strength of the evidence he had gathered have proved to have been misleading.
The director of a private DNA-testing laboratory said it had omitted from its report that DNA from multiple men – none a match to the defendants – was found on vaginal and rectal swabs, on the accuser’s body and on her underwear. Brian Meehan, the lab director, said he and Nifong had agreed to leave out that information because the case was so “explosive.”
“Everyone just got run over by this guy who made these statements for which there was no support,” said Duke Law School professor James Coleman, who chaired the faculty committee that prepared a report looking into the lacrosse team’s past.