Nifong set for Bar hearing
Committee to mull dismissal motion
By: Tanisha Palvia, Staff Writer
Issue date: 4/5/07 Section: State & National
Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong will appear before a hearing committee of the N.C. State Bar on April 13 with a motion to dismiss ethical misconduct allegations.
Nifong faces numerous charges, including withholding evidence and lying to the court and opposing counsel during the investigation of allegations that three Duke lacrosse players sexually assaulted a woman in March 2006.
State prosecutors took over the case when Nifong excused himself Jan. 12 in the face of ethics charges against him. In December, Nifong had dropped rape charges against the players after the accuser changed key details of her description of the alleged attack.
Joseph Kennedy, law professor and fellow at UNC's Parr Center for Ethics, said he doesn't think Nifong's motion to dismiss the charges will be granted.
He said that motions are used for different objectives and that the move might be more strategic than an attempt to win the motion.
"It's an opportunity for the lawyers to get the judges thinking about their legal arguments long before the trial actually commences," he said.
The hearing committee for the motion raised by Nifong's attorneys consists of two lawyers and one non-lawyer from the N.C. Bar's disciplinary hearing commission, said L. Thomas Lunsford, executive director of the N.C. State Bar.
If the committee does not grant Nifong's motion to dismiss the allegations, his trial date of June 12 will proceed as scheduled.
If convicted at the trial, Nifong, a UNC Law School alumnus, could face consequences ranging from written punishment to temporary suspension to disbarment.
"Whenever the alum of a law school is convicted of some kind of ethical violation, it's not a good thing for the school," said Ron Wright, professor of law at Wake Forest University's School of Law.
However, Wright said Nifong is just one graduate out of many from a school that also has produced numerous remarkable political officials.
Nifong faces numerous charges, including withholding evidence and lying to the court and opposing counsel during the investigation of allegations that three Duke lacrosse players sexually assaulted a woman in March 2006.
State prosecutors took over the case when Nifong excused himself Jan. 12 in the face of ethics charges against him. In December, Nifong had dropped rape charges against the players after the accuser changed key details of her description of the alleged attack.
Joseph Kennedy, law professor and fellow at UNC's Parr Center for Ethics, said he doesn't think Nifong's motion to dismiss the charges will be granted.
He said that motions are used for different objectives and that the move might be more strategic than an attempt to win the motion.
"It's an opportunity for the lawyers to get the judges thinking about their legal arguments long before the trial actually commences," he said.
The hearing committee for the motion raised by Nifong's attorneys consists of two lawyers and one non-lawyer from the N.C. Bar's disciplinary hearing commission, said L. Thomas Lunsford, executive director of the N.C. State Bar.
If the committee does not grant Nifong's motion to dismiss the allegations, his trial date of June 12 will proceed as scheduled.
If convicted at the trial, Nifong, a UNC Law School alumnus, could face consequences ranging from written punishment to temporary suspension to disbarment.
"Whenever the alum of a law school is convicted of some kind of ethical violation, it's not a good thing for the school," said Ron Wright, professor of law at Wake Forest University's School of Law.
However, Wright said Nifong is just one graduate out of many from a school that also has produced numerous remarkable political officials.
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