SEX, POWER AND CONFUSION

Good lawyers tell stories, and Durham County District Attorney Michael Nifong last year had an amazing story. It involved a black stripper, white lacrosse players at Duke University and allegations of rape. It appeared to be a narrative that nearly everyone could follow: a young woman trying to better herself was sexually abused by privileged young white men and the district attorney was the hero, crusading for truth and justice.

But, because Mr. Nifong broke one of the first rules of trial attorneys – know all the facts before you open your mouth – his story has slowly unraveled. Last week, North Carolina’s attorney general took over the case. While this is right and overdue, the story may be rewritten and the ending much different than many expected.

The story hit the headlines last March after the dancer, a single mother who was a student at North Carolina Central University, told police in Durham, N.C., that she was forced into a bathroom and beaten, raped and sodomized by three men after she and another woman were hired by members of the Duke lacrosse team to dance at a party.

In Durham and other cities, people took to the streets to protest. They were angry about what they perceived as the white elite abuse of power. There was a small protest in support of the lacrosse players and the idea of waiting until the whole story was known.

Because our first learning experiences come from stories, lawyers typically use them to make their cases understandable to a jury, says Bangor attorney A. J. Greif. The lawyer then leads the jury to a happy ending, which is either a reward for the plaintiff overcoming a difficult situation or acquittal for a wrongly accused defendant.

In this case, the district attorney got ahead of the narrative, and he became trapped in evidence that contradicted the story he was trying to tell, which was that “hooligans” whose “daddies could buy them expensive lawyers” raped a “black girl.”

Defense attorneys revealed that DNA samples did not match any of the lacrosse players and cell phone records appeared to exonerate one player. The other dancer called the accusations a “crock” – after seeking to profit from the story.

Last month, an investigator from Mr. Nifong’s office interviewed the accuser. She changed her account and the rape charges were dropped. A week later, the North Carolina bar association filed ethics charges against Mr. Nifong, accusing him of making inflammatory statements about the players.

Last week, the state took over the case and promised a fresh look. With a different storyteller, the narrative may be quite different.