Mike Nifong is in need of counsel-and the city of Durham won't be providing it.
Although a civil suit filed earlier this month implicates the former Durham County district attorney, DNA Security, Inc., and the city of Durham in the mishandling of the lacrosse criminal case, Durham will not provide representation for either Nifong or the employees of DSI-the company that handled Durham's forensic analysis in the case-because neither worked for the city, Durham Public Affairs Director Beverly Thompson told The Associated Press earlier this month.
Though he was no longer a state employee at the time the lawsuit was filed, Nifong has asked the state to cover his legal fees while he attempts to stave off a lawsuit from the three former Duke lacrosse players he wrongfully indicted for rape, The (Raleigh) News & Observer reported Monday.
"Because I was a constitutional officer of the state of North Carolina at the time that the subject matter of the complaint arose and at all times referenced therein, and because the complaint arises out of the exercise of the duties of that office, I am hereby requesting that you make any necessary arrangements to secure my representation in this matter," Nifong wrote in an Oct. 8 letter to Judge Ralph Walker, director of the administrative office of the courts.
James Craven, a local lawyer who is representing Nifong, wrote a second letter to Walker Oct. 12, again urging the state to aid the formerly state-employed district attorney in paying his legal fees.
The state has not yet issued a response to the two requests.
The city's decision not to represent Nifong and DSI can be seen as a strategic move intended to distance the city from Nifong's misconduct, said Duke law professor James Coleman.
"The city will do everything it can to separate itself from Nifong and the DNA company because that's how they will defend themselves," Coleman said. "The city does not have the same interests as Nifong and the DNA company, and part of their defense will be to say that if the plaintiffs [have] suffered any harm it was the result of Nifong and the DNA company."
Whether or not Nifong and DSI acted independently of the city will be one of the key issues in the civil trial, Coleman said.
Duke law professor Paul Carrington said the city's claim revolves around the premise that Durham officials could not control the actions of Nifong or DSI and therefore are not responsible for their behavior.
"The City Council can't tell the district attorney what to do or not to do. He doesn't report to them. He's elected on a county-wide level," Carrington said. "It is my impression that there wasn't anything that the City Council could do to regulate his conduct. They didn't control his salary. On that account, it strikes me as plausible for the city of Durham to say that he's not our guy."
-Lawyers representing Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty and David Evans, Trinity '06, filed the civil suit Oct. 5, claiming the criminal case against the three former lacrosse players was "a total fabrication by a mentally troubled, drug-prone exotic dancer whose claims, time and again, were contradicted by physical evidence, documentary evidence, other witnesses and even the accuser herself."
The brief argues the defendants conspired to pursue charges even after discovering there was insufficient evidence to continue the trial. The players' attorneys also claimed the defendants made public statements to intentionally smear the lacrosse players, withheld evidence and intimidated witnesses.
The lawsuit, which was filed in federal court after the city of Durham refused the players' $30-million settlement offer, seeks unspecified damages and asks the Durham Police Department to reform the way it handles criminal investigations.
Specific changes would include establishing an independent committee to review complaints of police misconduct and improved training for Durham police officers. The suit also asks for DSI to be banned from giving court testimony for a decade.
DSI declined to comment for this story.
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