The walking embarrassment that is our current district attorney let out another whopper at tonight’s DA candidate forum:

“The reason that I took this case is because this case says something about Durham that I’m not going to let be said,” said Nifong. “I’m not going to allow Durham’s view in the minds of the world to be a bunch of lacrosse players at Duke raping a black girl from Durham.”

Leaving aside that this statement fails to make logical sense, I think it would also be a fair statement that if the world’s view of Durham is “a bunch of lacrosse players at Duke raping a black girl” then that view was largely created by Nifong’s hyperbolic claims and irresponsible behavior during the investigation—which, of course, this statement is another instance of. Even the alleged victim only claims there were three rapists, which is well short of “a bunch,” and she couldn’t even identify any of them (no doubt by sheer coincidence) until their photos had been plastered across the front page of the News & Observer three weeks after the incident.

The bottom line in this case is that if it is ever proved in a court of law that a rape did occur at the hands of young men present at the party at 610 North Buchanan, something that is certainly within the realm of possibility even given the apparent absence of DNA evidence, reliable testimony by the alleged victim, or credible corroborating witnesses, it will largely be in spite of—not due to—the efforts of Mike Nifong.

It’s been a relatively slow news day, but there are still a few developments worth noting in the Duke lacrosse rape investigation:

• Both of DA Mike Nifong’s opponents in his May 2 Democratic primary contest took shots at the prosecutor at an election forum this evening in Durham.
• Local attorney Bill Thomas, who represents one of the men’s lacrosse players, expects at least one player to be indicted by the grand jury.
• The News & Observer talks about the second round of DNA tests—apparently not being conducted by the state crime lab—and reports skepticism from defense attorneys on Nifong’s statement that the the alleged victim has identified a suspect in the case.
• Last, but not least, the hiring of Bob Bennett as the spokesman for a newly-formed group called the “Committee for Fairness to Duke Families” has raised a few eyebrows.