Nifong bankruptcy plea unlikely to shield him

He tried a frame-up, manufactured evidence and repeatedly lied to courts and the public.

Now the disgraced Mike Nifong is trying bankruptcy as a means of avoiding being held to account through civil suits for his odious actions.

I’m not an attorney or knowledgeable about bankruptcy but attorneys I’ve spoken to who are say Nifong’s attempt to claim bankruptcy will not shield him in the civil suit brought by three former Duke students Nifong and others attempted to frame for gang rape and other felonies.

Two items in this post lend support to that conclusion. One is extracts from a Ray Gronberg story in today’s Durham Herald Sun. The other is a very informative post at Liestoppers.

Gronberg begins:

Former District Attorney Mike Nifong on Tuesday won what in all likelihood will be only a temporary respite from a civil-rights lawsuit filed against him in connection with his role in the Duke lacrosse case.

Because of Nifong's recent bankruptcy filing, U.S. District Court Judge James Beaty Jr. ordered court clerks to remove Nifong from the lawsuit filed by exonerated players David Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann.

A bankruptcy expert, Duke Law School adjunct professor Jeffrey Coyne, said Beaty's move was a "fairly standard administrative move to allow the rest of the lawsuit" to go on. The players are also seeking damages from the city, Durham police and administrators, and a Burlington DNA lab. …

The next move involving Nifong will occur on Feb. 8 in the Durham Centre. Bankruptcy trustee Sara Conti has scheduled a meeting that morning with the former DA's likely creditors. Nifong must attend and answer under oath questions put to him by Conti and his creditors.

The entire H-S story is here.

Second item: A Liestoppers post by Sceptical, Bankruptcy Dodge Won’t Work, which lays out the reasons why it will very likely not work. The post also links to one by Penn State Dickinson School of Law professor Mary T. Reilly. If you’re closely following Nifong’s bankruptcy claim, sure to read both posts and their threads