NIFONG, PART ONE: CUE ANDY WARHOL

The Amended Complaint is 33 pages long. The first 15 and half pages are just a recitation of the foundation of the case and a litany of imprudent public statements Nifong made which a reasonable lawyer would have thought might influence a jury. Some are more putrid than others. One essentially attacks the system by asking why a defendant would need a lawyer if he weren't guilty or had something to hide (Uh, Mike, maybe because there are unscrupulous prosecutors out there). Some of the remarks discuss evidence which I'm sure the police would rather have had come up for the first time in court. Many of them were just his undistilled opinion (essentially saying "trust me--they're guilty").

All of this is impermissible under the rules set out for lawyers and the higher standard for prosecutors. None of these looselipped pronouncements, in and of itself, would have brought about substantial punishment. There would have been some understanding that a case of nationwide publicity would be a little difficult for a local prosecutor to navigate, even an experienced politician.

But the sheer volume of them is a concern. How many times does a guy screw up before it becomes obviously willful? The non-stop chatter to national media, at some point becomes cumulative.

Factor in that the backdrop for this performance was Class/Race Warfare during a primary election and it gets slimier. In effect the performance was to convince the black locals that he was on their side "against" the rich white out of state students. A prosecutor's not on anybody's side except crime's. A prosecutor has to tell cops "no", putative victims "no", defense counsel "no" and sometimes even Judges "no". If a prosecutor pledges his allegiance to any class of people, he's missing the point of a justice system.

Still, I will contend, that, if found guilty of everything in the first 15 and a half pages of the Amended Complaint, Nifong would not have lost his privilege to practice law for any substantial period of time. Moreover, because he was an elected official, it would have been likely that he would have been allowed to finish his term before the sanctions bit. There is precedent for that in several states. Disciplinary bodies do not wish to deprive the public of the elected official it chose. There are arguments on both sides but this one has held sway for first offenders before.

Of course, the Amended Complaint doesn't end there. Tomorrow, in the words of Dr. Strangelove, we will take up the "Precious Bodily Fluids."

For today I shall close with the following: Class warfare in any direction is a bad idea.