Durham DA remains tight-lipped

In the early weeks of the Duke lacrosse case, Durham County, N.C., District Attorney Mike Nifong was everywhere - from national TV to local Durham events - talking in detail about why he believed an exotic dancer's claim that she was raped by lacrosse players at an off-campus party.

Since then, his unusually vocal public posture has put the career prosecutor  squarely at the center of a firestorm, as defense attorneys continue to hammer away at a case they say never should have been brought. And Nifong has been largely silent, leaving critics to question the strength of the evidence and supporters to defend his handling of the probe.

This week, a group looking to unseat the prosecutor gathered 10,000 signatures on petitions to place county Commissioner Lewis Cheek's name on the November election ballot against Nifong for district attorney. The district attorney previously had faced no opposition after winning a May Democratic primary. Cheek, also a Democrat, will appear as an unaffiliated candidate.

According to Cheek, who hasn't decided whether to run, the prosecutor's actions raised "issues much greater than that case itself. Such as, how does one talk about cases, and ... deal with the media in ongoing investigations? "

Nifong, though, remains confident in the case, according to Durham Mayor Bill Bell.

"It would surprise me if he were not to proceed with the trial," Bell, 64, said. He believes Nifong's support in the city - with a population that is 46 percent white and 44 percent black - is steady.

"I just had a conversation with Mike and he feels strongly about the case," Bell said. "He wants to see it in the court. "

He said many in Durham remained disquieted by the accusations by a black woman, a student at nearby North Carolina Central University, that she was raped by three white men after dancing for hire at an off-campus Duke lacrosse team party the night of March 13-14, the mayor said. They want to see the facts of the case presented in a courtroom, he said.

Weak evidence?

Few who know Nifong well believe he'll be deterred by defense lawyers' public attacks on nearly 2,000 pages of evidence released so far, said Kerry Sutton, a Durham lawyer, who represents a player not accused in the case.

"I spoke with him a couple of days ago, and he is as confident as ever," said Sutton, whose client is Duke lacrosse player Matt Zash, of Massapequa.

The case led the university to suspend the top-rated lacrosse program in which 14 of the 46 players come from Long Island. Collin Finnerty, 19, of Garden City, David Evans, 23, of Bethesda, Md., and Reade Seligmann, 20, of Essex Fells, N.J., are free on bail on rape and kidnapping charges. A trial would not come until next year.

Lawyers and family members for all three have said they have strong evidence of innocence. Finnerty's father said his son passed a lie detector test, and can produce eyewitnesses and documentation to prove his innocence.

Defense lawyers have been waging a public battle to undermine Nifong's case - and the accuser's credibility. She has not commented publicly, but the accuser's father has said he believes his daughter. She could not be reached.

But Sutton sees the case as doomed by the mounting disclosures of apparently weak evidence. "I wish I knew what he's thinking," said Sutton. "I'd say I'm puzzled and disappointed. "

Search for the truth

Mary Sheehan Pollard of the Center for Death Penalty Litigation in Durham, a lawyer with no connection to the Duke case, said the case does appear to be weakened, based on what has been made public. She said she was particularly struck by Nifong's early statements that there was strong medical evidence of assault, evidence that to date hasn't materialized.

She said that she, and many others in Durham, initially considered the case to be strong, but are now unsure. "I wonder whether the case is what we thought it was," she said.

But, Pollard cautioned, public perception of the case is based on the defense cherry-picking weaknesses, before anything is revealed in the courtroom.

One of Nifong's opponents in the Democratic primary campaign for district attorney in May, Durham lawyer Keith Bishop, said Nifong's public comments about the case may have had an effect on black voters.

"He got a majority of the African-American vote ... He found an approach to the black community," said Bishop, the only black candidate among the three on the May primary ballot. "In this town you generally need votes from both white and black to win. "

Bishop said that despite the weaknesses in the case, there's no reason to think Nifong is not doing his duty as a public servant and prosecutor.

"He's hard-nosed," Bishop said. "But he's honest and trustworthy. "

Since the three suspects were named, Nifong, 55, has declined to comment on the case, and did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

But in an e-mail to Newsweek last month, he suggested that there may be damaging evidence that defense lawyers have failed to publicize. "What other documents did they not show you? " Nifong asked.

Nifong continued, "Is anyone surprised that the defense attorneys are spinning this case in such a way that things do not look good for the prosecution? Their job, after all, is to create reasonable doubt ... "

Nifong added, "The only people I have to persuade will be the twelve sitting on the jury, and if you want to know how I am going to do that, you will need to attend the trial."