Michael Nifong

No resolution is in sight for the Duke University lacrosse sexual assault case. And Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong, former prosecutor for the case, may lose his job.

Earlier this month, Nifong asked the state attorney general to recuse him from the case after the N.C. State Bar filed ethics complaints against him in December.

The initial charges alleged that he violated ethics codes for making inflammatory pre-trial comments about the case, possibly injurious to the Duke lacrosse players.

The State Bar filed an amended complaint in a January 24 hearing. Nifong is charged with withholding DNA evidence and misrepresenting the truth to the judge.

“It almost doesn't get any worse than lying to the judge, in terms of ethical violations, but lying to the judge about information that suggests the defendant is innocent is even worse,” UNC-Chapel Hill law professor Joe Kennedy told WRAL-TV.

The complaint alleges that Nifong and Dr. Brian Meehan, the director of DNA Security, arranged only to report positive DNA matches to the defense and to omit DNA matches found to other men.

The defense asked Nifong to supply DNA evidence several times. He didn’t hand it over until October.

Nifong told the State Bar that he withheld the results out of concern for the players’ privacy. The complaint said Nifong’s response was “knowingly false.”

Nifong’s trial date has been extended to June. If found guilty, he could be forced to resign as DA.

In December, Nifong dropped charges of rape against the three men after the 28-year-old woman said she no longer knew whether she had been raped.

Superior Court Judge W. Osmond Smith moved the date when the accuser was scheduled to testify from February 5 to May 7.

Defense attorneys are expected to petition the judge to throw out the accuser’s photo identification of the defendants after she changed her story. Legal experts have said that without the photo identifications, prosecutors would probably dismiss the charges against the players.

Political science and history senior A.J. Donaldson said the accuser’s change in story should not be used to clear anyone of potential wrongdoing.

“There has to be a lot of trauma involved,” he said. “Just because she can't remember who harmed her doesn't mean the harm didn't take place. She knows something happened.”