Ex-Duke Lacrosse Prosecutor Leaves Jail

By AARON BEARD

DURHAM, N.C. – Former Durham County prosecutor Mike Nifong walked out of jail Saturday morning after completing a 24-hour contempt sentence imposed by a judge for lying to the court about critical DNA evidence in the Duke lacrosse rape case.

Nifong left the jail shortly after 9 a.m., where he was greeted by a small crowd of supporters and reporters.

Three Duke University lacrosse players were accused of raping a woman who had been hired to strip at a team party in 2006. Nifong pursued the case and won indictments, but the charges were eventually thrown out by state prosecutors who declared the players innocent victims of a "tragic rush to accuse."

Nifong had recused himself from the case in January after being charged with ethics violations. He was disbarred in June for more than two dozen violations of the state’s rules of professional conduct, including withholding exculpatory DNA evidence and making numerous inflammatory comments about the lacrosse players to the media, and he resigned as district attorney in July.

Last week, Superior Court Judge W. Osmond Smith III found Nifong in contempt for lying to the court during a hearing in the case last September regarding whether DNA evidence had been provided to defense attorneys.

Smith found that Nifong had provided defense attorneys with a DNA testing report that he knew was incomplete despite insisting that he had provided all results. The omitted data contained test results showing that DNA of multiple men, none of whom were lacrosse players, was found on the accuser. A defense attorney eventually deciphered the omitted information amid nearly 2,000 pages of test data.

Smith could have sentenced Nifong to as many as 30 days in jail and a fine as high as $500.