Since we are now-living in the post Nifong era...

I thought it might be apropos to republish this prophetic, lil piece as the Nifong undoing - gets done.

A little mind exercise:

Mike Nifong – Ten Years Hence - special to the New York Times

Mike Nifong, the former Durham County, North Carolina District Attorney, garnered much attention in 2006 for his prosecution of three white, affluent, Duke lacrosse players, David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann, for the rape of an African-American, exotic dancer at an alcohol infused lacrosse party. The case had all of the elements of a rape turned political drama – race, class, female victimization, which assured every new development in the case front-page headlines. The contentiousness of the issue was fueled by overzealous bloggers hoping to expand their readerships with inflammatory, and quite often, racist statements.

Much has changed in the life of Mike Nifong since his days as the feisty, well-liked prosecutor. He no longer practices law. Black marks on his record from the Federal and State investigations into his prosecutorial conduct have probably prevented him from ever practicing law again. While he has petitioned to become a member of the New Hampshire Bar, his love of the law is now a jaded fantasy. “I was only trying do justice”, he states. Many years of civil litigation have also taken a toll on his finances. The four million dollar verdict in favor of the Duke defendants had cost Nifong his home, his career and his family. His wife Cy left him in March of 2007, just a month after the Duke case was dismissed by a local judge. While the divorce papers cite “irreconcilable differences” as the reason for the divorce, insiders say differently. “Cy never liked what Mike was doing. She always urged him to drop the charges. She always thought the family could make a nice life for themselves in Durham, even if he wasn’t the D.A.”, said a source close to Cy.

Mike has moved on to different pastures. He had a brief stint of self-destructiveness following the vindication of the Duke defendants. He was convicted of driving under the influence, petty drug offenses and a misdemeanor sexual molestation offense, but he puts those far behind him. “I was depressed because I was only trying to do justice for that poor, young, African-American girl. My investigator told me that he thought she was serious about the rape. And I never, never fondled that girl at the Tithole”.

Mike is more content now. He lives in a tiny, yet modest one bedroom-home just outside of Lebanon New Hampshire, where he moved just after the Syrian Wars. “I needed peace and solitude. I felt like I went through my own war – for justice”, he reflects with a determined sense of animosity. He received a modest inheritance from a relative which helps him provide for his necessities, but he has taken up a new occupation, far a field from the hostile, bickering courtroom.

Beekeeping has become his new career, profession, occupation and passion. He talks now of an orphaned hive as fervently as he once did of a guilty defendant, although now there is much less pomp and circumstance to his declarations. Still, one gets an impression of his good naturedness and passion as he sells his honey jars on Meriden Road in Lebanon, New Hampshire. Michael Nifong is a poor and beaten man we might be able to learn from.


Call me MIss Cleo.

-P.S. Sorry Beekeepers. (ed.)