Public mistrust

You reap what you sow.\nAs common sense as this might sound, the recent floggings of some officeholders have the public bemoaning the politicians’ “unfortunate” situations.\nExample one is former Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong. \nLate last week, a disciplinary committee of the North Carolina Bar Association announced the disbarment of Nifong. \nCommittee Chairman F. Lane Williamson said, “This has been a fiasco. No doubt about it.” \nEarlier this year, North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper called the case a “tragic rush to accuse” and Nifong a “rogue prosecutor.” \nRegardless of your political inclinations, at this point it is difficult to say the Duke rape case was anything more than an elected official’s attempt to pander to an important constituency. That three innocent young men got caught in the crossfire makes it all the more tragic.\nThe bottom line is that Nifong got what he deserved. His case should serve as a warning to prosecutors who consider using otherwise decent young men and women for re-election fodder.\nExample two, former Monroe County Prosecutor Carl Salzmann, hits closer to home.\nIn all fairness, Salzmann was never even accused of the kind of wrongdoing that ended Nifong’s career. Rather, his mistakes were more of sloth than ambition.\nDuring the last election season, myself and one of my colleagues, Ms. Grace Low, were asked to write a column about the race for county prosecutor.\nThe data Low and I uncovered showed a prosecutor who had been in office a little too long and had become convinced of his own political immortality.\nThe year 2003 saw fewer than 1.4 percent of felony or bench trials decided by a jury with an astonishing 27 percent of cases dismissed. I could go on, but the pattern is obvious: Salzmann was a rather unmotivated prosecutor who deserved defeat.\nExample three reaches a bit higher up the political food chain: former Connecticut governor John Rowland.\nFor those who do not remember, Rowland was convicted and sentenced in 2005 for depriving Connecticut’s citizens the honest services of their government. He had initially been charged with taking about $100,000 from a construction contractor and accepting gifts he should not have. \nAn article about him in the Washington Post makes it hard not to feel sorry for him. His life ruined, he now speaks to others about ethics and makes a fraction of the money he did previously.\nHowever, by his own admission, he was an arrogant governor. He expected people to give him things and then got caught with his hand in the cookie jar.\nMike Nifong, Carl Salzmann and John Rowland are all public officials once at the height of popularity who have fallen from grace. They could have saved their careers when it was obvious they were not doing the right things but chose their ruin instead\nSo, as I said before, you reap what you sow.