Nifong to Step Down in July

Jun 18, 07:40 PM

Current Headlines: DURHAM, N.C. _ District Attorney Mike Nifong, soon to be stripped of his law license, informed Gov. Mike Easley Monday that he plans to resign his elected office in 25 days, a timeline met by disbelief and dismay among the prosecutor's critics.

While Nifong is making a slow exit, Duke University moved quickly on Monday and announced a settlement with the former Duke lacrosse players and their families.

Neither announcement came with much explanation.

Neither Duke nor the players disclosed how much money changed hands, but the university expressed regret.

Meanwhile, Nifong was holed up in his office Monday with a "No media" sign on the door.

In separate but similar letters to Easley and to Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson, Nifong shared his plans to leave office at the end of the work day on Friday, July 13.

But on Monday the prosecutor's critics began immediately to work on ways to oust him sooner.

State legislators tried to fast-track new legislation that would give the governor the power to remove disbarred district attorneys and judges from office, but any disbarment of Nifong would not go into effect until 30 days after a written order is entered with the N.C. State Bar. The panel that disbarred Nifong said it will take several weeks to enter the order.

Meanwhile, Durham resident Beth Brewer, who is trying to oust Nifong via the courts, said she would turn to the North Carolina Court of Appeals to achieve her aim.

Brewer has unsuccessfully petitioned Hudson, Durham County's top judge, to oust Nifong for misconduct.

"That man should not spend one more minute in office," Brewer said Monday.

Hudson, in February and again in April, said he would wait until after the State Bar disciplinary proceedings to take up the matter.

On Monday, Hudson cited two reasons why he would not take up Brewer's petition _ a lack of resources to put on his own case and no formal disciplinary order from the Bar.

After a five-day disciplinary proceeding that concluded Saturday, Nifong was found guilty of numerous ethics violations.

Lane Williamson, chairman of the disciplinary panel that heard the case, described Nifong's handling of the Duke lacrosse case as "a fiasco" and said it had fostered distrust in the North Carolina justice system.

In testimony from a string of witnesses, including Nifong himself, lawyers for the Bar laid out a case against the veteran prosecutor that forced him to admit that he had made false statements to the court and not turned over crucial evidence to defense lawyers.

In tearful testimony on Friday, Nifong announced his plans to resign as the district attorney of Durham, a job he has held since April 2005.

"It has become increasingly apparent during the course of this week ... that my presence as the district attorney in Durham is not furthering the cause of justice," he said.

Jackie Brown, Nifong's former campaign manager who parted ways with him over his handling of the lacrosse case, said Nifong's decision to remain in office for four more weeks makes those words seem disingenuous.

"To me he is thumbing his nose at his own statements that he made before the Bar," said Brown, a Durham resident who spent the past week in Raleigh attending the Bar proceedings. "He's going out on his own terms, on his own time. Last week I believed he was sincere in what he was saying about resigning to let Durham heal, to let his family heal and just to get this all behind him. ... Then he comes out this morning and it's business at usual."

Staying on an extra month does little for Nifong's state pension. If he resigned Monday, Nifong would collect a monthly pension of $5,365.20, according to the State Treasurer's office. Staying in office for four more weeks would add $27.90 to his monthly pension.

Easley, who appointed Nifong to fill a vacancy in 2005, said he would get rid of the district attorney immediately if he could.

"I think he should have left and not gone back," except to clean out his office, Easley said at a press conference.

Easley said he would begin looking for a replacement for Nifong.

James Coleman, a Duke law professor and critic of Nifong, said the 25-day exit did not bother him so much because it could take the governor time to find a successor.

What troubled Coleman more, he said, was the statement that Nifong made on Friday after his emotional resignation speech.

When asked what he thought happened at the lacrosse party from which the gang-rape allegations emerged, Nifong said he thought "something happened" _ though not a sexual assault _ in the bathroom of the party house.

"Even if he believed that, it just showed such a lack of grace in the circumstances," Coleman said. "It's just as inexplicable as his other conduct in the case. It was like he was not only trying to slime the three students but all the other members of the team."

While Coleman said Nifong's actions continue to court bad publicity, other experts say Duke's settlement with the players is an attempt to get the story out of the headlines.

"The university just wants this to go away," said law professor Carl Tobias, who teaches torts and constitutional law at the University of Richmond. A lawsuit and trial would expose e-mail and other internal communication, potentially producing embarrassing facts about Duke's handling of the case, he said.

"Duke's reputation is the central piece of this," said Tobias, who graduated from Duke in 1968.

In a statement, the board of trustees and Duke President Richard Brodhead said they wanted to eliminate any future litigation and move forward.

"This past year has been hard for many people who care about Duke _ for students, faculty, staff, alumni, families and friends _ and for the three students and their families most of all," the Duke statement said. "We resolve to bring the Duke family together again, and to work to protect others from similar injustices in the criminal justice system in the future."

In their statement, the exonerated players, Dave Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann, said they hoped to bring the Duke family back together.

"The events of the last year tore the Duke community apart, and forcibly separated us from the university we love. ... We look forward to working with the University to develop and implement initiatives that will prevent similar injustices and ensure that the lessons of the last year are never forgotten."

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(McClatchy Newspapers correspondent Ryan Teague Beckwith contributed to this report.)

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