By AARON BEARD, Associated Press Writer
from YAHOO! NEWS

RALEIGH, N.C. - A tearful Mike Nifong said Friday he will resign as district attorney after admitting that he made improper statements about three Duke University lacrosse players who were once charged with raping a stripper.

“My community has suffered enough,” Nifong said from the witness stand at his ethics trial on allegations that he violated rules of professional conduct in his handling of the case.

The players were later declared innocent by state prosecutors.

The North Carolina State Bar said Nifong withheld DNA test results from the players’ defense attorneys, lied to the court and bar investigators, and made misleading and inflammatory comments about the three athletes, who were cleared of charges they raped a stripper at a team party in March 2006.

Nifong said he did not make all the mistakes alleged by the bar, “but they are my mistakes.”

“It has become increasingly apparent, during the course of this week, in some ways that it might not have been before, that my presence as the district attorney in Durham is not furthering the cause of justice,” Nifong said.

Nifong’s soft’spoken statements were barely audible in the courtroom, where observers leaned forward in their chairs as they struggled to hear Nifong through his tears. He stunned even his own attorneys and staff with the news, who said they had no idea what he had planned.

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