Sheriff Seizes Nifong's Office Keys, Credentials

Jun 20, 05:00 AM

Current Headlines: By Kevin Johnson

A North Carolina judge on Tuesday suspended Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong and appointed a special prosecutor to remove him, saying that the botched rape investigation of three Duke University lacrosse players brought "disrepute'' to the office.

Durham County Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson said Nifong's behavior was "prejudicial to the administration of justice.''

The judge's action marked yet another blow to the disgraced public official, elected last year as the county's chief prosecutor.

Last week, the North Carolina State Bar stripped Nifong of his law license after a three-member panel found that he had misled two judges and defense lawyers while leading the inquiry into allegations that three student athletes had sexually assaulted an exotic dancer at a March 2006 team party.

The students were exonerated this year by the state attorney general who intervened in the case.

Before the state bar announced its findings, Nifong said he would resign effective July 13. The delayed departure date triggered Hudson's order.

Under orders from the judge, Durham County Sheriff Worth Hill went to Nifong's home Tuesday morning and seized the district attorney's office keys and county credentials.

"It was a very cordial meeting,'' Hill said. "He understood that I was just doing my job. We took his keys and his ID.''

For Hill, who has known Nifong since 1978 when the young lawyer joined the district attorney's office as an unpaid prosecutor, Tuesday's meeting was especially difficult. "It's just a shame that someone who has served for so long, that one case brought all of this on him,'' Hill said.

Hudson has appointed Wake County, N.C., attorney Robert Zaytoun to initiate a removal hearing within 30 days.

Meanwhile, attorneys for the three exonerated former students -- David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann -- plan to ask a Durham County judge to issue additional sanctions against Nifong for lying about key evidence in the case.

The attorneys also have called for an independent investigation of the case. (c) Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.