In TV interview, Easley again criticizes Nifong

Gov. Mike Easley talked politics this week with PBS talk show host Charlie Rose, a North Carolina native. Easley, a former prosecutor, was asked about one of North Carolina’s most talked about prosecutors over the past year — Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong.

In January, Easley told a New York University crowd that picking Nifong to be Durham’s district attorney was the worst appointment of his career.

On The Charlie Rose Show that aired Wednesday, Feb. 28, he elaborated on that appointment.

A portion of the script from that show follows:

CHARLIE ROSE: Speaking of legal issues, the lacrosse team. Some of the players who were first accused of rape, and there was a prosecutor over there, Nifong I think his name was.

MICHAEL EASLEY: That’s right.

CHARLIE ROSE: He was appointed by you?

MICHAEL EASLEY: He was appointed acting DA by me. The district attorney, a very good district attorney, I appointed judge, and I wanted someone who wasn’t going to run, that was a long-term prosecutor, just to hold the office together until somebody was elected. And our staff interviewed him. He said he wasn’t going to run, and we didn’t think he would. And then he got out and started running.

There’s a totally different standard you set for somebody who is going to be the elected district attorney and get into politics, and then there’s somebody who you want just to run the office. Because when you get out there and start making political comments, it requires a whole lot of different talent, a whole lot of different skills that obviously he didn’t have. And he would not have been appointed had we known he was going to run.

That case is now with the attorney general’s office. He turned it over to the attorney general. It’s with a good team there.

CHARLIE ROSE: He was forced to turn it over to the attorney general, wasn’t he?

MICHAEL EASLEY: No, he ...

CHARLIE ROSE: He volunteered to do that.

MICHAEL EASLEY: Well, he was under a lot of pressure, though. You’re correct about that. He voluntarily did it, but -- volunteered to do it, but ...

CHARLIE ROSE: He handed over the prosecution to someone else. And the rape charges have been ...

MICHAEL EASLEY: They’re under investigation.

CHARLIE ROSE: Under investigation.

MICHAEL EASLEY: Right now. What’s happened is the prosecution team at the attorney general’s office who I know is very, very competent. They’re looking at it, giving a whole fresh look, and they’ll make a determination. And if it is a good case, they’ll try it; if it is not, they’ll dismiss it and be done with it. But I can tell you, the crowd that has it now is going to do the right thing.

CHARLIE ROSE: The prosecutorial team.

MICHAEL EASLEY: Yes.

CHARLIE ROSE: Yes. Because they’ve got some very good defense attorneys there, too.

MICHAEL EASLEY: They do.

CHARLIE ROSE: From the North Carolina Bar.

MICHAEL EASLEY: And what’s unfortunate about it is, once a prosecutor says the wrong thing or says something that they shouldn’t say, then it’s on. I mean, the fight’s on. The defense attorneys don’t have a lot of choice but to defend their clients. So then the whole thing is getting tried in the press, and everybody loses on that. It looks bad for the team. It looks bad for Duke. It looks bad for the state. It looks bad for the judicial system. And that’s why you want somebody who understands the media ...

CHARLIE ROSE: Fair to say you would not have appointed him if you had it to do over?

MICHAEL EASLEY: That’s correct. I would voluntarily not appoint him, just as he voluntarily turned the case over to the attorney general.