The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C., Barry Saunders Column: 'Sorry' is Only the Start

Jun 19, 06:05 AM

Current Headlines: By Barry Saunders, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.

Jun. 19--Just by dint of being me, I've had to issue hundreds of apologies and have received a few.

Check this out: Whenever an apology begins "To the extent that my actions...," what follows will be as meaningful as declarations of love in a whorehouse.

That, essentially, is how the teary apology from discredited, dismissed and disbarred DA Mike Nifong was viewed. It failed to mollify the Duke lacrosse players, their families or their legion of inexplicably rabid supporters. Even more important, it did nothing to make the Disciplinary Hearing Commission members view him more sensitively.

In his testimony, Nifong said, "To the extent that my actions have caused pain to the Finnertys, Seligmanns and Evanses, I apologize. ... To the extent that my actions have brought disrespect, disrepute to the bar, to my community, I apologize."

Lawyer Joseph B. "Matlock" Cheshire V wasn't buying. He called the apology "tepid" and a "cynical ploy" by Nifong to save his law license.

The disciplinary commission obviously saw it that way, too, because even after Nifong fell on his sword and said he would resign as Durham's district attorney, the commission ran him through anyway. Ouch.

I don't know about you, but when I heard him say, "I think something happened in that bathroom," I cringed and went, "Naw, homes. Don't say that -- even if you believe it."

Had the commission been inclined to show mercy before, it certainly wasn't after that display of intractability.

For the record, Nifong isn't the only one who thinks that something happened, but he was the only one fighting for his professional life when he said it.

The commission made sure that Nifong's heretofore exemplary three-decade career was not merely dead, but really most sincerely dead. Considering the way it lowered the boom, the only way he can get into a courthouse now is if he gets picked up for stealing a package of bologna out of the Piggly-Wiggly. Or to respond to anticipated civil lawsuits.

Perhaps that's as it should be, but if you think that Nifong is the first North Carolina district attorney to abuse his office for apparent political gain, you haven't been paying attention.

Prosecutorial misconduct is as common in North Carolina courthouses as seersucker suits. The only difference is that in most cases, bad behavior by prosecutors is reprimanded mildly, if at all.

Now that the commission has dropped the house on Nifong, it had better do the same the next time a kid without the Duke pedigree gets railroaded by an overzealous prosecutor.

Here, sung to the tune of Kenny Rogers' "The Gambler," is free advice for North Carolina prosecutors. Maestro, hit it:

Every DA knows that the secret to survivin'

Is knowing which case to prosecute and knowing which one to flee.

You never try those cases where the families all have money

Or you'll find it's your behind that gets stuck up in a tree. ...

You've got to know when to hold 'em, know when to scold 'em,

Know when to let 'em walk and know when to run.

'Cause you'll find it's a whole new ballgame, yes indeedy

When you start out prosecutin' on a rich man's son.

Tell Barry what you think at 836-2811 or barry.saunders@newsobserver.com.

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