Saturday, June 16, 2007

Nifong: "Old-Fashioned Guy"

Witt is now arguing that Nifong was an "old-fashioned guy," this explains his approach.

Wm'son: Have to assume that prosecutors have some ability to detect what is exculpatory evidence.

Witt's claim that Nifong is an "old-fashioned" guy--but throughout the claim has always been that Nifong opposed the "old-fashioned" approach and turned over discovery data.

Nifong made false statements, but he didn't know they were false. Why wasn't Nifong looking for all the evidence. "Because he wasn't."

Admits that Nifong made false statements to court--but claims they were unintentional.

Sharon Alexander (panelist): You can commit fraud by being silent.
Witt: Nifong was just talking about underlying data.

Witt: "Mr. Nifong is his own unique person. His mind is just his mind . . . This is a reasonable explanation of what happened."

Witt has now just conceded that Nifong made knowingly false statements--but not intentionally false statements.

Wm'son: the basic argument appears to be that Nifong is "in effect clueless"--"isn't that reason enough to say this man should not be doing what he's doing?"

Wm'son: this conduct was repeated several times over many months.

"There are certain things that are so fundamental"--lying, cheating, stealing

Don't get free pass on serious errors just because they hadn't done it before.

Wm'son:
We don’t give anyone a free pass on appropriating funds because a lawyer has practiced for 30 years without stealing his client’s money

This was not an isolated lapse of judgment. This was conduct over an extended period in a very high profile case [with much scrutiny.] So that the conduct was repeated a number of times.

“It was an egregious mistake but it was not intentional conduct.”

55 comments:

Anonymous said...

But the Innocense Project woman said Nifong was so up-to-date and "open file"!

Anonymous said...

JLS says...,

This is silly, they did not have everything Nifong had. He knew it. Nifong's expert said he told him not include all the results.

Anonymous said...

I think the red light just came on

Anonymous said...

here comes "it depends upon what 'is' means"

Anonymous said...

11:35: Your comment doesn't enhance this site at all.

Anonymous said...

wow...tap dancing by Nifong's mouthpiece that would have made Mr. Bojangles proud!!

Anonymous said...

I love her. Saying right out that she has problem leaving this at the "negligence" level and mentioning "fraud".....

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

well, be careful what you wish for

Anonymous said...

Wow! She is toasting Nifong! "You can commit fraud by staying silent..."

Anonymous said...

Witt saying Nifong "should have gone back and done something else [about the non-disclosure of eveidence] but he is own unique person."

ROFLMAO!!!!!

The "HE IS HIS OWN UNIQUE PERSON DEFENSE"!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

"his mind is just his mind" "that's a reasonable explanation" sheesh!!

Anonymous said...

Okay...the panel is now coming unglued in letting Witt know that they can see how full of.....uh...ahh...HOLES his logic is.

"Nifong is his own, unique person."

NOW THERE'S A QUOTE THAT SUMS UP THIS PROCEEDING!!!"

Anonymous said...

Witt now saying he concedes this could be beyond "negligence."

Anonymous said...

"His mind is just his mind"

That line of defense could be used to get a serial killer off.

Anonymous said...

Williamson sick of the "last 28 years" defense.

Williamson SO RIGHT that the conduct was not "one little mistake" -- it was over a LONG PERIOD, repeated a number of times in a high profile case.

Go Williamson!

Anonymous said...

OMG...Williamson is cooking this guy's butt!!!

Anonymous said...

Witt brought up a case about there being no rule about having sexual relations with a client, so they finally passed a rule and now all attorneys supposedly know an attorney can't have sexual relations with a client.

He then says that was analogous to what happened here.

That's crap. There was a rule already in place concerning turning over exculpatory evidence and Nifong violated it.

What Witt is asking is that Nifong be given a pass because even though there was a rule in place, Nifong didn't really understand that the rule meant something, but in the future attorneys should know that the rule will be enforced. In other words, Nifong should be given one freebie in violating the rule before he is held accountable to it. Does every other prosecutor also get one freebie? Or is Witt willing to concede that now that this has come to light, the rule is really the rule and it means something and no one else gets a freebie?

His argument is ridiculous.

Anonymous said...

"Should get a mulligan on this one..."

hee! hee!

Anonymous said...

Witt is defending less and less ground. Now admitting "multiple aggregious mistakes". Has already admitted "knowing violation", just not "Intentional violation."

Anonymous said...

how can a statement be knowingly false but not intentionally false? talk about your all time bad closing arguments...I feel like I am watching a bad episode of Boston Legal.

Anonymous said...

We don't give a guy a pass for stealing because he practices for 30 years without misappropriation of client funds.

Anonymous said...

I wanna go play golf with Witt and Nifong...I could shoot eight below par with all the Mulligans I could ask for using their rules!!!

LMAO

Anonymous said...

"multiple egregious mistakes, but not intentional conduct"

Plus, he's already trying to argue sentencing.

Anonymous said...

Witt Just conceded his client is guilty.

Tom E.

Anonymous said...

He is now making exactly the point that I made earlier about Old School...they didn't need written rules, they had a sense of honor.

Anonymous said...

Speculation is useless but I cannot help myself. For the first time I think his license will be revoked permenantly.

Who will have the ball to get the criminal charges rolling?

Anonymous said...

After all that this panel is saying, is there really a chance he does not get disbarred?

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

Yes laxhool -- I'm glad he said that. You both made a great point.

Anonymous said...

They have no respect for Mr. Witt

Anonymous said...

Oh, since no one was wrongly convicted, it's not so bad.

Anonymous said...

Witt: "Uncle! Uncle!" hee hee

Anonymous said...

Witt: "help, Mr. Wizard!!!"

Anonymous said...

Quit beating that dead horse.

Anonymous said...

The argument about no wrongful conviction yet...is like arguing that "My client wasn't arrested ten years after murdering somebody and hiding the evidence....he was caught at the scene with the smoking gun, so he should get a lighter sentence."

WHAT A PILE!!!

Anonymous said...

new thread.

Anonymous said...

the defense now appears to be: "hey, these boys hadn't been murdered in prison...yet!"

Clearly North Carolina is a State to avoid!

Anonymous said...

What punishments have been meted out to lawyers who had 30 years of impeccable records, and then appropriated even large amounts of funds?

Anonymous said...

New thread.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

"how can a statement be knowingly false but not intentionally false?"

Ask the prosecution, because they were the party to have argued that one was not the other well before Mr. Witt's testimony this morning. Were you not paying attention earlier?

Anonymous said...

So we see the Williamson is going to go easy as an egregious mistake is not intentional conduct.
Meehan should be brougt back, Nifong is throwing him under the bus.

Anonymous said...

that nifong continues to maintain that he can't recall the first meeting at the dna lab (a 2 hour drive with others) is in itself evidence of his willful and knowing efforts to suppress the dna results. it undermines all of his claims of honesty and disingenuous intent before the panel. they can only view his testimony as contemptuous and deceptive throughout the hearing and proof of his unethical conduct in the entire matter.

Cedarford said...

The defense now appears forward looking, beyond the Bar hearing.."Nifong the clueless incompetent" is geared, I think, not to protect his Bar license, but to establish Mikey as a good faith fool. Someone who shouldn't be sued or criminally prosecuted for acts of malice because he was simply too lazy, sloppy, stupid to know what he was doing.

I think the hope is that the Bar can do what they will, and Mikey will accept that and then raise the claim that "the poor bumbling fool he is" has been punished enough. The Bar should be the end of it - so "healing" can start.

Anonymous said...

Cedarford,

That won't work. These bar reps seem pretty sharp.

I think Mikey should be thinking about how to protect his anus.

"Anus"--LOL

Pun, that.

Debrah

Anonymous said...

Looking at the circus now unfolding, it is easy to forget that there was no trial. The DA brought an indictment against three youths who had been accused of rape during a frat party. The threshold for a grand jury indictment were obviously met. Instead of waiting for the trial, they chose to try the matter in the media though a well funded media campaign during which the alleged victim could not defend herself nor the alleged perpetrators cross-examined. Nobody really knows what happened that night since there was no trial but to have the DA lose his law license is just simply bizzarre.

Anonymous said...

To Freedman's question as to why Nifong, who supposedly has a 28 year career where he did nothing that got him sanctioned in the past, all of the sudden do something that got his ass in the wringer:

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

MikeZPurdue said...

To the anonymous person who posted at
1:02:00 pm, you have your head in the sand.
You don't want to know the truth.
As Jack Nicholson said in "A Few Good Men":
"You can't handle the truth"

Anonymous said...

1:02,

You don't know what you're talking about. Even if the former LAX defendants had been guilty, and they weren't--they were innocent, Mr. Nifong's ethical violations would still be ethical violations for which he could and should be disbarred. The fact the defendants were obviously innocent only serves to fan the well justified outrage.

Observer

MikeZPurdue said...

Also to 1:02:

it was Nifong who chose to bring
this case to the public arena with all
of this early outrageous statements,
the defense lawyers had no choice to
rebut him in the public arena

MikeZPurdue said...

One more thing to 1:02:

I feel I must respond to your totally
irresponsible statement that "nobody
knows what really happened that night"

Besides the fact that we know with 100%
certainty from the DNA evidence that the
3 boys indicted absolutely did NOT assault
Ms Magnum in any way, shape, or form,
we also know with 100% certainty, that
Ms Magnum lied about what happened that night.

Of many examples proved with 100% certainty
that she lied, she said that she was raped --
it has been proven with 100% certainty
that she was not raped that night.

And one thing we are also sure of is that
the Grand Jury that served up the indicements
was lied to.

Anonymous said...

To 1:02
Many of us having been interested, sometimes obsessed, with this case for a year or more. We tend to know a lot of the details of the case.
For us, today was a good day. If today was not so good for you maybe you should try to connect that to the fact that you obviously know virtually nothing about this case.

Anonymous said...

For the record, poster 12:52PM is the mental case, JC Clyne/Polanski engaging in more blog identity theft by signing my name to his idiocy.

Debrah (the real thing)

mac said...

1:02 is Polanski, also.
He just likes to pretend to
be one of the people he hates
so much.

Unless he has a multiple personality disorder.