Carolina Politics Online

RALEIGH — Judge William L. Stocks of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of North Carolina on Tuesday ruled to allowing three former Duke lacrosse players to pursue a civil lawsuit against former Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong.

Stocks lifted a stay that had protected Nifong as he moved through bankruptcy proceedings. Stocks said in his ruling Tuesday that his court didn’t have jurisdiction to hear the claims involved in the case.

Nifong pursued false rape charges against Dave Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann until state prosecutors declared the players innocent last year.

The Herald-Sun

The chickens have come home to roost.  I love watching justice unfold before our very eyes.  I hope Nifong is ruined in the same way he tried to ruin the lives of these three guys.

DURHAM — Freda Black fired her first political shots across the bows in announcing her candidacy for Durham County district attorney Friday.

On the courthouse steps with supporters at her side, Black criticized prosecutors who served under ex-district attorney Mike Nifong, two of whom will be joining her in the May Democratic primary field.

The Herald Sun

A federal judge has removed former Durham County prosecutor Mike Nifong from a civil lawsuit filed by three Duke University lacrosse players falsely accused of rape.Nifong filed for bankruptcy two weeks ago, citing more than $180 million in liabilities. Almost all of that amount is the estimated damages from pending civil litigation.

U.S. District Court Judge James Beaty left open the possibility that Nifong could again become a defendant in the civil suit, saying in Monday’s filing that could happen within 90 days of the end of his bankruptcy case.

The News-Record

Well that sucks, but hopefully they’ll get him later.

DURHAM — Former District Attorney Mike Nifong’s bankruptcy filing probably won’t short-circuit a federal civil-rights lawsuit filed by the three Duke lacrosse players he falsely charged with rape, a lawyer well-versed in the field says.

The now-disbarred prosecutor’s Chapter 7 filing earlier this week will block proceedings against him temporarily, but determined litigators can overcome it, said Jeffrey Coyne, a bankruptcy specialist who teaches at Duke Law School.

“While it may buy Mr. Nifong some time and require some additional procedure, it is by no means clear he can shed this litigation,” Coyne said.

The Herald Sun

Oh Mikey, this won’t save you. I hope they bleed you dry until you’ve got nothing left but a cardboard box in a downtown alley.

Ryan McFadyen, Matthew Wilson and Breck Archer filed the 389-page federal lawsuit Monday. The players argue that the dozens of defendants named in the suit conspired to pursue the case despite evidence that the rape allegations were false.

The players accuse Duke University, former Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong, the City of Durham and others of inflicting emotional distress, negligence and fraud.

The three players who were falsely charged filed a sweeping federal lawsuit in October against Nifong, the city and police investigators.

Fayetteville Observer

I don’t want to pass judgment on this just yet without hearing more.  Admittedly, when I first heard this on the news I was thinking to myself that they are just trying to cash in on their friends’ misfortunes, but I suppose there could be legitimacy to their claims.  If they were initially put under the microscope and falsely harassed there might be some standing there.

The U.S. Department of Justice will not investigate former Duke lacrosse prosecutor Mike Nifong for his handling of the case, a spokesman for the agency said Wednesday.That decision also jeopardizes a possible investigation at the state level, according to a spokeswoman for Attorney General Roy Cooper, who said prosecutors in North Carolina can’t indict someone on charges of lying to investigators.

The DOJ carefully considered the case but decided that it was an issue better resolved inside the state, said spokesman Peter Carr in a statement.

“We believe the State of North Carolina has the primary interests in this matter: protecting the integrity of its judicial proceedings, holding Mr. Nifong accountable for his actions as an officer of its courts, and vindicating the principles of justice under state law,” Carr said.

The News-Record

As much as I thoroughly despise Michael Nifong, I don’t really have a problem with this decision.  The state has acted on this matter and I don’t think we’ve seen the last assault of justice on Mr. Nifong.

Tracey Cline is chief assistant district attorney and Mitchell Garrell is assistant district attorney. Freda Black was an assistant prosecutor until she was dismissed by Nifong two years ago.All three plan to run for Nifong’s old job next year. Steve Monks, a lawyer who ran a write-in campaign against Nifong in 2006, say he may run if he’s not elected to the City Council in the meantime.

Winston-Salem Journal

Former Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong is asking the state to reconsider its decision not to help him in his battle against a civil suit brought by three exonerated former Duke lacrosse players.Nifong had asked the state to pick up his legal tab because he was working as an officer of the state when he was prosecuting the lacrosse case.

Raleigh News & Observer

Bullshit. Nifong flagrantly abuses his position in office to ruin the lives of three men and he now he wants the taxpayers to pick up the tab for his defense? This guy has absolutely no shame whatsoever. He’s lucky is still a free man and not in jail quite frankly.

Three former Duke lacrosse players falsely accused of rape filed a federal lawsuit Friday against disgraced prosecutor Mike Nifong, the city of Durham and the police detectives who handled the investigation.

The lawsuit calls the criminal case against Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty and Dave Evans was “one of the most chilling episodes of premeditated police, prosecutorial and scientific misconduct in modern American history.”

The lawsuit seeks unspecified punitive and compensatory damages, attorneys fees and numerous reforms to the way the Durham Police Department handles criminal investigations. They include changes to a photo lineup procedure that helped secure indictments against the three players and the appointment of a monitor to oversee certain police activities for 10 years.

The lawsuit was filed about a month after city officials met with lawyers for the families seeking a $30 million settlement and several legal reforms, two sources close to the case have told The Associated Press. The attorneys gave the city a month to respond or face a civil rights lawsuit.

News & Record

Durham, Nifong, and Duke University need to be hit with everything these three guys can take them for. An example needs to made out of this incident. It was a blatant case of politically induced prejudice and bigotry and will affect these guys forever.

The prosecutor who led the now-discredited Duke lacrosse rape case reported to jail Friday to serve a 24-hour sentence for contempt of court. The city, meanwhile, was in settlement talks with the three exonerated players.

According to a person close to the case, attorneys for the three players are seeking $30 million from Durham and reforms in the legal process.

Charlotte Observer

Those boys deserve every penny of it. Good for them.

Former District Attorney Mike Nifong will spend a night in jail after being found guilty of criminal contempt by Superior Court Judge W. Osmond Smith III.

Smith ordered Nifong to report to the Durham County jail at 9 a.m. next Friday. He will stay there until 9 a.m. the following day.

The judge could have sentenced Nifong with a $500 fine or up to 30 days in jail.

Charlotte Observer

He’s getting off easy. He ought to be in jail for the next twenty years for his crimes.

The State Bar sent Nifong an invoice Friday for $8,897.71.

The bill covers the the cost of having a court reporter at hearings Jan. 24, April 13 and June 12-16. It also covers costs for depositions of Linwood Wilson, the former investigator for the Durham District Attorney’s Office, police Sgt. Mark Gottlieb, Investigator Benjamin Himan and Nifong himself.

Raleigh News & Observer

Only nine grand? That’s pretty lenient.

Former Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong ended his legal career last week when he mailed in his law license along with a note decrying “the fundamental unfairness” of how he was treated by the N.C. State Bar.

The bitterness in Nifong’s letter, dated Aug. 7, is in stark contrast with his statements in June, when the bar’s Disciplinary Hearing Commission ordered him stripped him of his law license for intentionally and repeatedly lying and cheating during his prosecution of the Duke lacrosse case.

The News & Observer

Is this guy for real? He railroaded three men for over a year, nearly destroying their lives for his political gain, and he has the nerve to cry foul against someone else? Forget about the State Bar. Nifong belongs behind a set of metal ones.

Disgraced former prosecutor Mike Nifong acknowledged Thursday there is “no credible evidence” that three former Duke lacrosse players committed any of the crimes he accused them of more than a year ago, offering for the first time a complete and unqualified apology.

“We all need to heal,” Nifong said, adding later, “It is my hope that all of us can learn from the mistakes in this case, that all of us can begin to move forward. It is my hope that we can start this process today.”

Nifong’s apology came as a judge began the process of considering whether to hold the former Durham County district attorney in criminal contempt of court for his handling of the discredited lacrosse case.

Charlotte Observer

Hell yeah he should be held in contempt. The man should rot in jail for what he did to those three guys. No amount of apologies can ever change what he did. Too little, too late.

Beleaguered and disbarred former District Attorney Mike Nifong, who prosecuted the Duke University lacrosse rape case, could wind up in jail if a motion is granted asking that criminal charges be filed against him, FOX News has learned.

Fox News

He should face jail time. What the man did was criminal. Period.

RALEIGH — A state bar disciplinary panel found that Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong broke 27 professional rules of conduct during his handling of the Duke lacrosse rape case.

It took less than an hour and a half for a three-member panel to find that Nifong knowingly made statements to the media that would bring condemnation to the accused players. The panel also found he made many false statements of material fact when he insisted over the course of several months that he had provided defense attorneys all the DNA evidence available to him.

News & Observer

Disbarment isn’t enough for Nifong. In addition to that he needs to be put behind bars and sued by the families of those three young men for every last penny he has. He ruined these boys’ lives for his own selfish political gain.