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NEWS ANCHOR: Some say it's karma. He may have ruined the lives of three Duke Lacrosse players, but might end up destroying his own career. So what's next for disgraced Durham DA, Michael Nifong?
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NEWS ANCHOR: I'm joined now by defense attorney Ann Fitz. Thanks for being with us.
ANN FITZ: Thank you for having me.
NEWS ANCHOR: He is today appearing before the state on charges of professional misconduct. Can the players use any of those, the, the things that are going to be brought up as a reason to go after the DA perhaps for monetary damages because it has cost them millions of dollars to defend themselves. I think each family about a million dollars. First, by withholding exculpatory evidence.
ANN FITZ: Definitely. The boys can use what the state bar is reviewing today, which specifically is malicious intent and the false misrepresentations that the DA made to the court regarding the disclosure of the DNA evidence to the defense side.
NEWS ANCHOR: What about the insinuation that we're now getting from the attorney general when he dropped the charges, declared the boys innocent?
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NEWS ANCHOR: He insinuated that the accuser was in essence mentally unstable. If the DA had that kind of information early on, and the indication is he did, from all of the changing statements, could the young men's attorneys use that as well, saying this clearly was not a stable, credible accuser and that should have right away knocked out the case?
ANN FITZ: Definitely. In order to bring a case and to follow through on criminal charges, the DA had to be convinced that there was probable cause to believe that the allegations were true against these boys. Now if there was an unstable victim coupled with DNA evidence that came back that exculpated the boys, then there wasn't reason to believe there was probable cause that they actually committed these crimes.
NEWS ANCHOR: But what in reality can they do? The guys' families are out about, I think about a million dollars each in legal fees. They, can they go after Mike Nifong and say you should have to pay this? I mean clearly, I'm assuming that he's not that wealthy that he can't do it. They, they certainly can't get that much money from the former accuser.
ANN FITZ: Well, they can go after the DA individually. They may also be able to go against the state and bring suit against the state who has the deeper pockets by virtue of having a government employee abuse his position of trust.
NEWS ANCHOR: Would they then have to show that the state even after it started coming out in the media, all of this information, that the state allowed the, the process to continue thereby forcing the young men and their families to continue paying very high legal bills.
ANN FITZ: Yes. They have to show that the state was negligent in allowing these criminal charges to continue. And therefore they're responsible for the actual fees and all of the costs that these boys incurred.
NEWS ANCHOR: Okay. Bottom line though, you know, for somebody to be disbarred it seems is pretty rare. And charges like this I assume are even rarer. What are the odds of anything going forward?
ANN FITZ: Well, you know, disbarment is not as rare as someone would be led to believe. Basically this man was a prosecutor. He was in a position of trust where he abused his position by lying to the courts. By doing that, that is enough to disbar him from legal practice.
NEWS ANCHOR: Okay. Well, we'll be watching it as Durham DA Mike Nifong goes to court today in front of the State Bar. Thank you very much, Ann Fitz.
