The prosecutor who pressed a false accusation of sexual assault against three former Duke University lacrosse players was disbarred with accusations of “dishonesty, fraud, deceipt or misrepresentation.”
But the ruling was almost an anticlimax to the case because in the penalty phase of the five-day ethics hearing, David Freedman, one of Mr. Nifong’s lawyers, told the panel that Mr. Nifong believed that disbarment was “the appropriate punishment in this case.” The state also said it felt disbarment was appropriate.
After deliberating for less than an hour, the panel stated that any punishment short of disbarment would not be appropriate in the case.
In a lengthy statement, F. Lane Williamson, chairman of the disciplinary committee, said that Mr. Nifong had received due process, “and that’s what was nearly hijacked in the case of the Duke lacrosse defendants.”
