The Human Piñata

The hits keep coming for the human piñata, Defendant Nifong.

Yesterday, the North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys issued an unprecedented statement denouncing Nifong’s hijacking of the Hoax. Today, Time asks whether Defendant Nifong is guilty as charged while reporting that the North Carolina State Bar intends to file additional charges against the Defendant. The editorial board of the News & Observer has finally demanded that Nifong recuse himself from the case. Perhaps the most telling sign that Nifong is nearing rock bottom comes from the Hoax defense attorneys, who called another one of Defendant Nifong’s bluffs on Friday by filing notice that they intended to call his own experts as witnesses for the defense.

North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys

The statement issued by the NC Conference of District Attorneys reveals Nifong has truly beome a pariah among his peers. Professor KC Johnson notes:

“Even more than the publication of the State Bar’s complaint, this action is unprecedented.

“Intriguingly, the Conference didn’t demand that Nifong recuse himself from the case solely because of the ethics complaint—the letter deemed Nifong’s recusal necessary “in light of all the developments of the Duke Lacrosse case, including the filing on December 28, 2006.”

“Conference president Garry Frank described the document as “the unanimous statement of the officers of the Conference of District Attorneys,” and confirmed that the executive board reviewed Nifong's handling of the entire case.

The statement ostracizing Defendant Nifong from the NCCDA also reveals the depths of deception to which Nifong’s few remaining apologists are willing to sink. On December 22, Nifong apologist extraordinaire, John Bourlon appeared by telephone with Fox News’ “Live Desk” host Martha MacCallum. In response to MacCallum’s skepticism over Nifong bungling of the investigation and prosecution of the hoax in total, and in particular Nifong’s failure to interview the accuser, Bourlon offered the following, misleading, response:

“I spoke with a district attorney yesterday in an adjoining county and I asked that very question because we just concluded the North Carolina Association of District Attorneys conference. Not one single elected district attorney in the 100 counties of North Carolina, that I’m aware of, has come forward and said this prosecution has handled this matter totally different than I would handle it. Not one! In my 27 years of experience, this is how every rape case proceeds.” LS Forum: Transcript of 12/22 Live Desk

Time

Time brings us confirmation this morning that the State Bar Grievance Committee will convene in January to address additional charges against Defendant Nifong.

“The Dec. 28 ethics charges are expected to be expanded when the state bar's grievance committee meets again Jan. 18. Like a grand jury, the committee meets periodically; the current ethics charges stem from its most recent meeting in October and cover public statements Nifong made about the case last March and April. At its next meeting, the committee will deal with revelations from a Dec. 15 court hearing in which the state's DNA expert admitted he and Nifong agreed to keep secret from the defense early DNA results showing no Duke lacrosse player could be implicated in an attack upon one of two exotic dancers hired for the March 14 house party.”

Time also advances the speculation of Nifong’s recusal from the Hoax to the welcome suggestion of his removal from office.

“Now that the North Carolina State Bar has filed a 17-page, 41-count ethics complaint against District Attorney Michael Nifong's handling of the Duke rape case, there's a different kind of New Year's countdown taking place in Durham: when and under what circumstances will Nifong leave office…All of this would be moot, of course, if Nifong were to resign from office or be forced off the case by the presiding judge. The North Carolina governor's office, which appointed him to the post, could also ask him to resign from office.”

News & Observer

Today’s demand that Defendant Nifong to remove himself from his hijacked Hoax is the News & Observer editorial staffs' firmest statement yet against the human piñata.

“Having to face the Bar's allegations, which carry the possibility of stiff sanctions, is reason enough for Nifong to remove himself from the case, and to do so immediately. Let judges or the state Attorney General's Office figure out what happens after that.

“Nifong essentially now has a conflict between his duty to pursue justice in the case, wherever that leads, and his need to defend himself from accusations of unprofessional conduct. If he proceeds as prosecutor, the public would be entitled to wonder: Is he charging on despite problems with the accuser's credibility and the lack of DNA evidence because he has a convincing version of events that has yet to come out -- or because he has painted himself into a corner with his comments? And did his desire to win an election influence his actions in this specific case?

“Nifong ought to do his job in a way that ensures justice, not one that merely seeks a
courtroom victory, no matter what. The State Bar's action only adds to the clarity of the right next step: Mike Nifong must leave the case.” N&O

Today’s demand indicates a clear departure from the pro-Nifong stance it took post-election. On November 12, editorial page editor Steve Ford, accepted Nifong’s election victory without qualms about the hijacked hoax that ensured his campaign success.

“Somebody would have been hard-pressed to vote against Nifong for any reason other than a belief that the lacrosse players are being railroaded.

“Does it amount to some kind of travesty, then, that Nifong is set to continue as D.A.? Not in my book.”

Nifong’s Witnesses to Testify for Hoax Defendants

Several months ago, Defendant Nifong submitted a list of the expert witnesses that he reasonably expected to present at trial. At the time, the list of nine experts added to the illusion that he had evidence to support his false allegations. To some degree, the experts present on the list have continued to fuel the delusions of Nifong’s last remaining windmill tilters. Recently a commentator at Talk Left opined:

“He has a witness list. If she sticks with it, he'll use it.”

Yesterdays’ declaration of intent to call the experts that Nifong pretended he reasonably expected to present is further indication Defendant Nifong has lost the game of chicken he has been playing with the truth from the beginning of the Hoax. As a kicker, the notice states that the defense testimony expected from the additional experts listed beside Meehan would encompass the material the experts provided to Nifong initially, further indicating that rather than probable cause, Nifong was in possession of evidence of actual innocence from the start.

Defense Notice