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All remaining charges in the Duke Lacrosse rape case may be dropped soon according to reports. A motion to dismiss the charges will be filed in the coming days.

That’s good news, but it is bittersweet news.

That sorry excuse of a District Attorney, Mike Nifong, continues in his job. Let’s hope that the State Bar revokes his license to practice law. They should, because legal systems are judged by their weakest link, and Mike Nifong’s link is made of Jello. The North Carolina State Bar has charged Nifong with several violations of rules governing professional conduct, including withholding evidence from defense lawyers.

Meanwhile, one of the nation’s finest institutes of higher learning, Duke University, suffered irreparable harm to its academic name, not to mention losing its storied Lacrosse team for a year.

And then there are the boys. Yes, the boys who were roadkill on Nifong’s way to elected office. How much suffering, stress, and money did Mike Nifong cost them? How many relationships were ruined by small doubts about their character? How many jobs were lost as a result of a corrupt local prosecutor?

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Bye bye, Mike Nifong. We called for Mike Nifong’s disbarment and removal from office long ago. Nifong’s unethical behavior in the Duke lacrosse team rape case is infuriating. He intentionally put some fine boys and families through a sham case, a rape case he knew was bogus, just so he could win an election. Go to hell, Mike Nifong.

There is a little lesson in life I teach the kids. What comes around goes around. Do unto others as they will do unto you. And Mike Nifong is learning that corrupt behavior in a powerful position of public trust may go punished after all. Justice is going to prevail against Mike Nifong as his house of corruption collapses around him.

Here is the latest:

Forced by allegations of misconduct to recuse himself, the prosecutor who drove the Duke lacrosse sexual assault case could end up losing much more than the opportunity to try a case he still believes in.

For Mike Nifong, the missteps of the past 10 months have the potential to end a career that started nearly three decades ago, when he signed up at the Durham County district attorney’s office as an unpaid assistant.

“You don’t easily recover from something like this,” said James Coleman, a Duke University law professor and frequent Nifong critic. “That’s what’s so unfortunate about this. He had a career — a long career, a reputation of being an honest and fair prosecutor — and for some reason, his conduct in this case was inconsistent with that.”

Nifong asked the state attorney general’s office Friday to take over the case of three lacrosse players accused of sexually assaulting a stripper hired to perform at a team party.

He must now defend himself against ethics charges that could lead to his being stripped of his law license. Should Attorney General Roy Cooper dismiss the case against Dave Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann — and legal experts have said there appears to be little evidence to support the charges — their families might try to sue Nifong.

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See also SoCal Law, Reverburating Dream

Justice may finally be served in the Duke lacrosse rape case. Mike Nifong, the corrupt district attorney, will face disciplinary action before the state bar. What goes around come around, Mike Nifong. Your naked ambition and contempt for our legal system has brought this upon you, like a house of cards crashing down on your head.

The North Carolina bar filed ethics charges Thursday against the prosecutor in the Duke lacrosse case, accusing him of saying misleading or inflammatory things to the news media about the athletes under suspicion.

The punishment for ethics violations can range from admonishment to disbarment.

Among the four rules of professional conduct that District Attorney Mike Nifong was accused of violating was a prohibition against making comments “that have a substantial likelihood of heightening public condemnation of the accused.”

The charges will be heard by an independent body called the Disciplinary Hearing Commission, made up of both lawyers and non-lawyers.

In a statement, the bar said it opened a case against Nifong in March 30, a little more than two weeks after the party where a 28-year-old student at North Carolina Central University hired to perform as a stripper said she was raped.

AP has the full story.

Over a month ago we called for Mike Nifong’s disbarment, indictment, and recall from office, and we have continued to cover the story here and here. Let’s hope we are on the way to restoring the rule of law. Let’s hope that Mike Nifong gets his due so we can put this national travesty by a renegade prosecutor behind us.

See also Our Little Corner.

[tags]mike+nifong, bar, discipline, ethics+charges, duke, lacrosse, rape, case[/tags]

You heard it here first – ok, well two hours after the AP posted it:

Rape Charges Dropped in Duke Case
By AARON BEARD, Associated Press Writer
2 hours ago

DURHAM, N.C. – Prosecutors dropped rape charges Friday against three Duke University lacrosse players accused of attacking a stripper at a team party, a defense attorney said.

Joseph Cheshire, an attorney for one of the three players, said charges of kidnapping and sexual offense remain in place.

Nifong, of course, couldn’t be reached for comment.

And other charges are still pending.

Members of the Duke lacrosse team that are currently fighting charges of raping, kidnapping, and sexually assaulting an exotic dancer back in March of this year may have got the break they were looking for today when Brian Meehan, director of a private DNA laboratory, admitted under oath to conspiring with District Attorney Mike Nifong to keep DNA test results (that are favorable to the Duke lacrosse players charged with rape) under wraps.

Brian Meehan, director of DNA Security of Burlington, said his lab found DNA from unidentified men in the underwear, pubic hair and rectum of the woman who said she was gang-raped at a lacrosse party in March. Nurses at Duke Hospital collected the samples a few hours after the alleged assault. Meehan said the DNA did not come from Reade Seligmann, David Evans, or Collin Finnerty, who have been charged with rape and sexual assault in the case.

Meehan struggled to say why he didn’t include the favorable evidence in a report dated May 12, almost a month after Seligmann and Finnerty had been indicted. He cited concerns about the privacy of the lacrosse players, his discussions at several meetings with Nifong, and the fact that he didn’t know whose DNA it was.

Find out more HERE.

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Last month, 60 Minutes blew the lid off the Duke University Rape Case. They took their time to do it right, exposing one of the great frauds by a prosecutor in U.S. history. The double-length presentation featured analysis of documents as well as interviews with the accused boys on the lacrosse team.

Over the past six months, 60 Minutes examined nearly the entire case file, more than 2,000 documents, including police reports, witness statements and medical records. The evidence 60 Minutes aired revealed disturbing facts about the conduct of the police and the district attorney, and in 60 Minutes underplayed words, “raises serious concerns about whether or not a rape even occurred.”

The three accused Duke players are white, and come from wealthy families. The accuser is a black stripper hired to perform at a team party, and someone who has a shady past. The other stripper who was with her denies that a rape occured. DNA evidence has seemingly cleared the boys.

Said David Evans, co-captain of the Duke lacrosse team and one of the accused players, “This woman [the accuser] has destroyed everything I worked for in my life. She’s put it on hold. She’s destroyed two other families and she’s brought shame on a great university. And, worst of all she’s split apart a community and a nation on facts that just didn’t happen and a lie that should have never been told.”

CBS legal analyst Mickey Sherman followed up the 60 Minutes expose with this article. Sherman also said the following about the boys’ interview on The Early Show:

“It shows an incredible amount of confidence in your case. You didn’t see lawyers sitting next to these guys,” he said. “And the fact they would just submit themselves tells me the lawyers believe their clients and believe in their clients and they are able to handle any cross examination in court, much less the interrogation of Ed Bradley.”

In my opinion, Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong should have been impeached from office, disbarred for gross negligence, and prosecuted for abuse of power. He blatantly used an obviously fake rape case to further his political ambition, garnering votes within the local black community in North Carolina to win a close election. His opportunistic gambit has cost several young boys their reputations, and has cast a shadow of derision across all students at one of the finest universities in the United States.

Instead, Mike Nifong was re-elected this month to continue serving his community in North Carolina as their top legal prosecutor. What a disgrace.