RALEIGH, N.C. --
June, 2007
District Attorney Mike Nifong was disbarred Saturday, June 16, 2007, for his "selfish" rape prosecution of three Duke University lacrosse players -- a politically motivated act, his judges said, that he inexplicably allowed to fester for months after it was clear the defendants were innocent.
"This matter has been a fiasco. There's no doubt about it," said F. Lane Williamson, the chairman of the three-member disciplinary committee that stripped the veteran prosecutor of his state law license.
The committee said Nifong manipulated the investigation to boost his chances of winning his first election for Durham County district attorney. In doing so, he committed "a clear case of intentional prosecutorial misconduct" that involved "dishonesty, fraud, deceit and misrepresentation."
Williamson specifically cited Nifong's comments in the early days of the case, which included a confident proclamation at a candidate forum that he wouldn't allow Durham to become known for "a bunch of lacrosse players from Duke raping a black girl." He also called the lacrosse team "a bunch of hooligans" at one point.
Appointed district attorney in 2005, Nifong was in a tight race for the office when an exotic dancer told police she was raped at the party.
"At the time he was facing a primary, and yes, he was politically naive," Williamson said. "But we can draw no other conclusion that those initial statements he made were to further his political ambitions."
