Duke Lacrosse D.A. Gets 1 Day In Jail

A disgraced former North Carolina prosecutor was sentenced to one day in jail after being held in criminal contempt of court Friday for lying to a judge when pursuing rape charges against three falsely accused Duke University lacrosse players.

Former Durham County district attorney Mike Nifong, who had already been stripped of his law license and had resigned from office, faced up to 30 days in jail and a fine of up to $500 when he was sentenced by Superior Court Judge W. Osmond Smith III.

"If what I impose with regard to Mr. Nifong would make things better or different for what's already happened, I don't know what it would be or how I could do it," Smith said.

Nifong was in charge of the prosecution of three white lacrosse players at the prestigious university who were charged with raping a black stripper at a March 2006 party thrown by the team. The players were eventually cleared of all charges by state prosecutors who took over the case. Authorities said the three were innocent victims of a "tragic rush to accuse."

Reading his contempt decision from the bench minutes after the conclusion of two days of testimony, Smith said Nifong "willfully made false statements" to the court in September when he insisted he had given defense attorneys all results from a critical DNA test.

In fact, Smith found, Nifong had provided the defense with a report on the DNA testing that he knew to be incomplete. The omitted data contained test results showing that DNA of multiple men, none of whom were lacrosse players, was on the woman who claimed to have been attacked at the party.

Taking the stand in his own defense, Nifong insisted Friday he did not intentionally lie about whether he had turned over the DNA evidence. But he acknowledged the report he gave defense attorneys was incomplete.

"I now understand that some things that I thought were in the report were in fact not in the report," Nifong said. "So the statements were not factually true to the extent that I said all the information had been provided."

Earlier Friday, Brian Meehan, the director of a private lab who prepared the DNA testing report, said the omissions were a misunderstanding. He said Nifong asked him to test DNA samples from lacrosse players to see whether any matched genetic material found on the woman who told police she was raped.

Although male DNA was found, no sample matched a lacrosse player. Results from the other unidentified men was referenced as "non-probative" material in the report given to defense attorneys, Meehan said.

Charles Davis, the attorney appointed to prosecute the contempt charge, asked Meehan whether Nifong's statement to the court - that the report encompassed everything he had discussed with Meehan - was true or false.

"It would be false because we don't include discussions in our reports," Meehan answered.

Nifong ultimately recused himself from the case after being charged with ethics violations.

He was disbarred in June for more than two dozen violations of the state's rules of professional conduct during his prosecution of the lacrosse case. He resigned a month later as district attorney.