Speaking of the the Duke Lacrosse case, this is a bit of old news, but back in January Mike Nifong had to file bankruptcy to deal with the civil lawsuits that have been brought against him by the exonerated Duke lacrosse players. He lists assets of $243,000 and liabilities of $180 million (presumably contingent claims).
On the other hand, it is far from clear that bankruptcy will help Nifong very much in the long run. Section 523(a)(6) of the Code makes nondischargeable debts incurred for "willful and malicious injury" to others. This traditionally has been defined as something like an intentional tort, as in Kawaauhau v. Geiger. I'm not familiar with the details of the players' complaint against him (please flesh this out in the comments if any of you are familiar with it_ but I assume that it includes counts for claims such as defamation and libel and other intentional torts, so I would think 523(a)(6) has a good chance of applying. In the meantime, he does get some benefit from the automatic stay, however.
According to this website, Nifong lists about $5000 per month in "pension and retirement" income (which it appears that he is claiming as exempt from the tort claims of the lacrosse players), "and describes himself, charitably, as retired."
His full bankruptcy schedules are here.
No, just the ones who lie and hide exculpatory evidence from suspects.
On the same logic, criminals should not be prosecuted, regardless of guilt. Because it will encourage the prosecution of even innocent people, who will have to spend money defending themselves against meritless cases that will ultimately fail.
In fact, let's just do away with all litigation, civil and criminal. That way nobody has to worry about silly legal actions.
For example, suppose I mistakenly pickup your umbrella, because I think it's mine. That's an intentional act, so conversion is an intentional tort. But I haven't intentionally harmed you, which is why Kawaauhau said conversion can sometimes be dischargeable.
I think your problem is that "intentional" is being using in two different ways. When we say something is an intentional tort we mean the act is intentional (that's why defamation always qualifies), but in bankruptcy the question is more whether the harm caused was intentional (so a recklessly false slander would presumably be dischargeable).
"As gross as Nifong's offenses apparently were, ..... Are we sure we want to go down this road? (I haven't thought through all the ramifications, but certainly it doesn't seem self-evidently a good thing.)"
He tried to put 3 men he knew to be innocent in prison for many years, in order to make good local PR for himself in a re-election campaign. In the process, he broke every rule in the book, and suborned others to do the same, which they did. And you're not sure 'if this is a good thing', that he be made to answer in civil court, and pay damages for his crimes ????
The court in Kawaauhau specifically said that "We hold that debts arising from recklessly or negligently inflicted injuries do not fall within the compass of §523(a)(6)." I think that suggests it is extremely possible, even likely, that §523(a)(6) would not apply to defamation verdict against Nifong, unless the plaintiffs can show he knew his statements were false. I imagine that would be difficult to prove.
We hold that debts arising from recklessly or negligently inflicted injuries do not fall within the compass of §523(a)(6).
Are there any homeless shetlers in Nifong's residence area?
Just a note. Nifong lied again in bankruptcy filing. Since there were no judgmnets in favor of his victims, he owes NOTHING to them yet. Thus, can't claim as liability.
Why not? That 'road' is the street the rest of us live on.
No. I am a former prosecutor and wouldn't fear facing suits like this. If anyone read's Stuart Taylor's book on the debacle knows, Nifong's behavior was nowhere near an honest mistake of prosecutorial judgment. Frankly, he is lucky he is not in jail.
Guru - not sure where your getting that from. I'd cite the code section but I start my products liability exam in 15 mnutes. :) Basically, claims in bankruptcy can be contingent. Not only did he not lie on his schedule, he was actually required to list those contingent claims.
As a procedural note, once these students file claims, there will be a mini-trial, most likely in district court (unless the parties agree to have the bankruptcy court do it). After the District court decision is made, it will be remanded back to Bankruptcy court with the fixed amount.
Which is where he should be!
At the time, he thought he had a winner on his hands, and cutting this corner wouldn't have any adverse effects. It's hard to lament that it isn't working out that way.
Oh, Nathan_M's 1:59am comment contains like ten pages worth of empty space in my browser for some reason.
No. There are also strict liability torts where mental state is not an element, e.g. for manufacture and design of defective products, conducting ultrahazardous activities that result in personal injury, etc.
As someone who has worked as a prosecutor, I don't see this case as having any sort of chilling effect on a prosecutor's decision making. Anyone who followed this case knows that Nifong's conduct goes well beyond the typical lawsuit brought against a prosecutor. In the vast majority of cases, the county/city has a lawyer that files a rule 12 or 56 motion and the prosecutor himself is hardly even involved. At worst he spends half a day being deposed.
That Nifong conspired to conceal exculpatory evidence is beyond any doubt. His pretrial publicity was not the normal shooting off at the mouth, but actually contained false prejudicial statements.
He consistenly refused to meet with defense counsel even after it had been established that one of the defendants had a rock solid alibi. Prosecutors want to know the defendant's story or theory of the case. That way they don't prosecute the innocent, waste time on cases that are unprovable or at least are able to anticipate what the opponent will do at trial He didn't meet with Mangum until months into the case and then kept encouraging her to change her story. None of this reflects a guy whose concern was for the truth.
Nifong should've done jail time for his actions.
So because some people get away with it, we should let him get away with it? Some people get away with murder too. That doesn't mean we shouldn't lock up those who commit murder that we can catch and prove a case against.
That's gotta be some big bathroom.
Nah, she's a run-of-the-mill moral retard who, unlike the rest of her cohort, accidentally hit the lottery with Nifong. She is, to quote my salty ancestors, not worth the bullet to shoot her.
What I'm more interested in is some kind of psychoanalysis of Nifong. Here's a guy who seems to have taken a good long look at that cliff right in front of him, licked his lips, rolled up his sleeves and took off at a full gallop, somehow expecting not to fall to his metaphorical death. It doesn't make sense -- what in the universe was he thinking?
The universe where most of the media and many other prominent members of the community like the Duke 88 were supporting him. Also he would probably not have been reelected in the first place had he not so publically prosecuted this case. I suspect, like most criminals, he thought he had a good chance of getting away with it.
Are there cases where prosecutors have had to pay the piper in such circumstances?
I stand corrected. But there still could be problems with a 13 if he doesn't have regular income (Although maybe his wife does). I guess the idea might be to see if his debts can be discharged in a 7, and if not, convert to a 13. I'll be curious how if that works out.
Oh, and does anyone think that the judge could do anything about that 5000$ per month that Nifong claims is immune? Hard to properly dumpster dive on 5k a month...
Sue the stripper, and everyone will remember when you were being characterized as a bunch of dumb frat boys with dubious morals. Also it (I think - IANAL) becomes part of the public record that you hired the stripper in the first place. And all the rest of it, like the (IIRC) underage consumption of booze. Better to let all that be forgotten by most of the public, and be remembered as the men who fought a power-hungry prosecutor.
No, it's not a crime to be a dumb frat boy with dubious morals, or even, in many jurisdictions, to hire a stripper. But it's not exactly something you want to follow you around for the rest of your life. And suing the stripper would refresh people's memories. (Plus, she probably doesn't have that much in terms of assets.)
Can't stay a criminal proceeding under bankruptcy law.
Good then. I know how this will sound to some, but it's hard not to see the faculty support for Nifong as in some sense an attempt to extend into the real courts the kind of kangaroo-court administrative punishments FIRE is always fighting (pun intended). If true, it failed so completely that it likely won't be tried again for years, if ever. That's more than just a win for prosecutorial ethics.
My question is why Nifong is not already in jail serving a sentence with dating privileges with Bubba from cell block D.
I would venture to suggest that you underestimate her by at least $ 0.25.
In the meantime, if Nifong giets his 'speculative maybe losses' from 'maybe lawsuits' cancelled pro-actively, he doens't even have to show up for the trial ( or depo or anything else ). He can just default, and wave his BK status.
Unreal.
On March 27, Nifong met with the Durham Police investigators, Sgt. Mark Gottlieb and Inv. Benjamin Himan, for the first time. The investigators had been instructed to report to Nifong in their investigative activities. Gottlieb and Himan provided an overview of the case: the accuser had told numerous versions of her story, had provided descriptions of her attackers that matched none of the players, had failed to make any identifications on two separate occasions, and had no visible injuries consistent with the allegation. At Nifong's disbarment hearing, Himan, while under oath, described Nifong's reaction to this summary: "You know, we're f***ed." In his testimony, Nifong did not dispute Himan's account, noting only that he did not remember his specific words.
Immediately after this briefing, Nifong lauched his inflammatory media campaign, in which he stated his certanty that a horrific crime had occurred and included details of the alleged attack that are known to be false.