Michael Byron Nifong (born September 14, 1950) is a disbarred American prosecutor who formerly served as the Durham County District Attorney.
After spending a year as a per diem assistant with the Durham County District Attorney's office, Nifong was hired on a full-time basis in 1979.
In 2006, Nifong pursued rape, sexual assault, and kidnapping charges against Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty, and David Evans, three white members of the Duke University men's lacrosse team.
The accusation of sexual assault was made by Crystal Mangum, one of two local black women who the lacrosse team had hired to work as strippers for a party.
[10] Former New York Times public editor Daniel Okrent wrote, the case "conformed too well to too many preconceived notions of too many in the press: white over black, rich over poor, athletes over non-athletes, men over women, educated over non-educated.
[15] In January 2007, Nifong sent a letter to then-North Carolina Attorney General Roy A. Cooper, asking his office to assume responsibility of the case.
[25] As the details of the case emerged, Nifong was attacked not only by advocates of the indicted students but by news sources such as The Washington Post[26] and the Los Angeles Times.
[27] They claimed he went public with a series of accusations that later turned out to be untrue; that he exaggerated and intensified racial tensions; that he unduly influenced the Durham police investigation; that he tried to manipulate potential witnesses; that he refused to hear exculpatory evidence before indictment; that regulations on the conduct of an identification exercise were breached by a failure to include "dummy" photographs of anyone who was not at the party; that he had never spoken directly to the alleged victim about the accusations; and that he made misleadingly incomplete presentations of various aspects of the evidence in the case, including DNA results.
[3][39][40] In these interviews, Nifong repeatedly said that he was "confident" that a rape occurred,[41] calling the players "a bunch of hooligans" whose "daddies could buy them expensive lawyers.
[44] On December 12, 2006, Republican Representative Walter B. Jones of North Carolina's 3rd district was reported to have sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales asking for an investigation into whether Nifong committed "prosecutorial misconduct" and violated the civil rights of the three suspects in the case;[45] Gonzales stated that his office might investigate how Nifong had handled the case.
[48][49] The prosecution of the case was criticized by the legal analyst for the National Journal, Stuart Taylor,[50] as well as New York Times columnists David Brooks[51] and Nicholas Kristof.
"[55] Thomas Sowell accused Nifong of using the case to improve his chances in the next election by gaining large support from the African American community.
A federal judge in 2011 ruled that a civil lawsuit could proceed against Nifong, including claims of malicious prosecution and fabrication of false evidence.
"[59] The seventeen-page document accused Nifong of violating four rules of professional conduct, listing more than fifty examples of statements he made to the media.
[61] In this document, it accused Nifong of a "systematic abuse of prosecutorial discretion ... prejudicial to the administration of justice" when he withheld DNA evidence to mislead the court.
Attorneys for the State Bar pointed out that it was only through diligent efforts of the Duke players' defense team that the DNA report was finally made available to them.
Joseph Cheshire, attorney for David Evans, one of the accused players, dismissed the apology as "a cynical political attempt to save his law license".
[67] On June 16, 2007, the North Carolina State Bar Disciplinary Committee unanimously voted to disbar Nifong after delivering a guilty verdict to 27 of 32 charges.
"[68] Committee chair Lane Williamson called the case a "fiasco" and said Nifong's actions involved "dishonesty, fraud, deceit and misrepresentation."
It is not known how much they can recover; Nifong had no income aside from his salary as DA, and public records indicate that he has no significant assets other than his home in Durham, real estate in western North Carolina and retirement accounts.
[71] On June 18, Nifong submitted his resignation to Governor Easley and Durham County Chief Superior Court Judge Orlando Hudson, saying he would leave office on July 13.
This came hours after Easley signed a bill that would allow the governor to remove a district attorney or judge from office if he or she has been disbarred or suspended from practicing law.
The bill does not allow a governor to remove a DA or judge until the State Bar formally issued its order of disbarment and all appeals have been exhausted.
Hardin was sworn in the next day, and served until September 2007, when Easley appointed Assistant District Attorney David Saacks to fill out the first half of Nifong's term.
[84][85] On June 22, the players' lawyers filed their motion asking Superior Court Judge Osmond Smith, who presided over the case, to hold Nifong in contempt.
Nifong was charged with having violated at least a dozen laws, rules and court orders designed to protect defendants' rights by playing "a game of hide and seek" with evidence that could have cleared the players.
Earlier that same month, Judge Smith had filed papers stating that he retained control over the case although the charges had been dismissed, and had the power to impose his own sanctions against Nifong.
[86] On July 25, Nifong issued a less qualified apology for his actions, saying he did not challenge Cooper's conclusion that there was "no credible evidence" to support the charges he had made.
[89] On October 5, 2007, Evans, Finnerty, and Seligmann filed a federal lawsuit alleging that Nifong engineered a wide-ranging conspiracy to frame the players.
Later that same year, Judge William L. Stocks lifted the automatic stay imposed by Nifong's bankruptcy filing, and announced that the plaintiffs could pursue their lawsuit.