“A Story of Two Mikes” a caution against jumping to conclusions before facts are known.

The "Mikes," of course, are Mike Pressler and Mike Nifong. Pressler was the lacrosse coach at Duke University, a man who had taken a program that consistently lost and built it into a national powerhouse. Nifong was appointed as the Durham County district attorney, but after promising the governor he would not run for that office, he changed his mind after finding out that if he won the next election, he would gain an extra $15,000 a year on his pension.

How the paths of these two men crossed is a story that has been told many times on this page and elsewhere: the Duke Lacrosse Non-Rape, Non-Kidnapping, and Non-Sexual Assault Case. It was in Durham two years ago that Mike Nifong declared that a number of athletes who played lacrosse for Mike Pressler had brutalized and raped Crystal Gail Mangum at a party at which she was hired to do a strip show.
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The title comes from a statement that Duke Athletic Director Joe Alleva said when he told Pressler that he wanted his resignation. When Pressler said, "We must stand for the truth," Alleva replied, "It’s not about the truth anymore." He went on, "It’s about the integrity of the university, it’s about the faculty, the city, the NAACP, the protesters, and the other interest groups."
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It did not stay that way, however. As readers know, Nifong’s case fell apart and ultimately the charges were dropped and Nifong was disbarred for many of those comments in the spring of 2006 to that adoring press and for hiding exculpatory evidence and lying in court. Soon after, he was removed as Durham County prosecutor and currently is unemployed. The success of 2006 turned into the horror of 2007, and now he faces lawsuits from three different sources, all regarding the lacrosse case.
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Mike Pressler has demonstrated that he possesses the character needed to rise above circumstances that might have doomed an ordinary person. While it is true that he was treated unjustly, in the end he is admired for his integrity and his determination to make a new life in the face of unbelievable odds against him. The other Mike, however, is doomed to live in the muddy swamp of self-pity, never going beyond the bounds that his own lies have set for him.