Nifong wants state's help

Faces legal bills in fighting lawsuit

DURHAM -- Former District Attorney Mike Nifong has asked the state to pay his legal costs as he fights the lawsuit filed by the three exonerated Duke lacrosse players.

The players filed suit in federal court in Greensboro this month alleging that Nifong, the city of Durham, the DNA laboratory hired by the disbarred former prosecutor and numerous police officials conspired to falsely charge the former Duke students with rape.

The suit charges that the defendants maliciously conspired to charge the players with rape even though they knew that allegations were "a total fabrication by a mentally troubled, drug-prone exotic dancer whose claims, time and again, were contradicted by physical evidence, documentary evidence, other witnesses, and even the accuser herself."

Last week, Nifong sent a letter to the Administrative Office of the Courts making an unusual request.

"Because I was a constitutional officer of the state of North Carolina at the time that the subject matter of the complaint arose, ... and because the complaint arises out of the exercise of the duties of that office, I am hereby requesting that you make any necessary arrangements to secure my representation in this matter," Nifong said Oct. 8 in a letter to Judge Ralph Walker, director of the Administrative Office of the Courts, which oversees the state's court system.

Typically a request for state representation would be made directly to the state Attorney General's Office. But on Friday, James B. Craven III, a Durham lawyer representing Nifong, raised concerns about Attorney General Roy Cooper in a follow-up letter to Walker.

Cooper, who in April described Nifong as a rogue prosecutor, "may well have a conflict and thus is unable to represent Mike," Craven said in his letter.

In April, Cooper dismissed the sexual assault and kidnapping charges against David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann.

To national TV crews and reporters from across the country, Cooper declared the three players innocent of all charges and victims of a rush to accuse by a prosecutor who refused to consider all the evidence.

Dick Ellis, a spokesman for the Administrative Office of the Courts, said no decision had been made on Nifong's request.

"Our lawyers are looking at this," he said Monday. "We're trying to decide if we're legally obligated."

Mary Ann Tally, a defense lawyer who has followed many prosecutorial misconduct cases, said that if the request is granted, some taxpayers might object to spending state money defending the discredited former prosecutor.

"The sad truth of the matter is there are a lot of people who already are concerned, and those who aren't may be when they see, 'This affects my pocketbook,' " Tally said. "They say, 'I can either have the schools, the roads, or I have to defend a rogue prosecutor.' "

Neither Nifong nor Craven, his attorney, could be reached for comment.