Interpreting Mr. Nifong's statements

Yesterday the Attorney General of North Carolina dismissed all charges against the three Duke University students pending from the year old indictment created by Durham district attorney general Mike Nifong. I went back and got his original statement at the time of the indictment - which was coincidentaly a year ago. Presented below are both statements with annotations.

April 2006 - Yesterday, based on evidence developed thus far in the investigation of the alleged sexual assault occurring at 610 N. Buchanan Boulevard in Durham, I submitted bills of indictment to the Grand Jury charging two members of the Duke University lacrosse team with the felonies of First Degree Rape, First Degree Sex Offense, and First Degree Kidnapping. The Grand Jury has returned those bills as true bills against Collin Finnerty and Reade William Seligmann. Upon my motion, and pursuant to the order of Judge Ronald L. Stephens under N.C.G.S. 15A-623(f), the bills of indictment were sealed. Because of that, no one in the court system was permitted to disclose that those bills had been returned – or even that they had been submitted to the Grand Jury – until such time as the defendants were arrested. Those arrests occurred earlier this morning, and each defendant was placed under a secured bond of $400,000.00. (Please be reminded that I am running for re-election and think this indictment will seal my campaign.)

It had been my hope to be able to charge all three of the assailants at the same time, but the evidence available to me at this moment does not permit that.(Indeed the evidence available to me is not actually dispositive of any crime being committed) Investigation into the identity of the third assailant will continue in the hope that he can also be identified with certainty. It is important that we not only bring the assailants to justice, but also that we lift the cloud of suspicion from those team members who were not involved in the assault.

Since these are now active and pending cases, the District Attorney’s Office will make no more public statements about the matter other than those made in open court pursuant to any hearings held in connection with these cases.

April 2007 - Attorney General Roy Cooper announced that his office had made the decision to dismiss the remaining charges in what has come to be known as the Duke Lacrosse Case. (You may remember that this is the case I started a year ago when I was in a tight re-election campaign.) While I certainly take issue with some of Mr. Cooper's comments, I want to make it clear that I have every confidence in the investigation into the case that was conducted by his office. ...(The major concern I have with Mr. Cooper's statements is that they are substantially correct.) Obviously, they have had access not only to all the evidence that I had, but also to additional evidence that I have not seen which they developed during their twelve weeks of independent investigation. I have every confidence that the decision to dismiss all charges was the correct decision based on that evidence. (I also hope that now everyone will forget about my misconduct.)

At the same time, it is important to remember that the attorney general had the opportunity to review this investigation and to make this decision because I requested that he do so. ... It is also important to remember that I turned over to him every document, every photograph, every piece of evidence of any kind that had been turned up in the Durham Police Department's investigation of these cases and in my office's review of that investigation. (In the case of Mr. Cooper's investigation I agreed to comply with the law because had I not I would have been put in the slammer immediately. Of course some of you will quibble that I did not offer the same kind of legal protection to the people I was investigating but then you will remember I was in a tough re-election campaign.)

If I did not want to subject either that investigation or my own performance to such scrutiny -- if, in other words, I had anything to hide -- I could have simply dismissed the cases myself. The fact that I instead chose to seek that review should, in and of itself, call into question the characterizations of this prosecution as "rogue" and "unchecked." ...(My turning this over to the AG was not entirely voluntary but at this point with potential pending legal actions against me, I want to try to change that history.)

To the extent that I made judgments that ultimately proved to be incorrect, I apologize to the three students that were wrongly accused. I also understand that, whenever someone has been wrongly accused, the harm caused by the accusations might not be immediately undone merely by dismissing them. (Gee, I sure hope everybody forgets this and dismisses the pending disbarrment proceedings and civil suits that I know are around the corner.)

It is my sincere desire that the actions of Attorney General Cooper will serve to remedy any remaining injury that has resulted from these cases. PLEASE DON'T SUBJECT ME TO ANY LEGAL PROCEEDINGS.

Michael B. Nifong
(Soon to be former) District Attorney and future inmate number 41175-201