RALEIGH -- A disciplinary committee said Saturday disgraced prosecutor Mike Nifong will be disbarred for his disastrous prosecution of three Duke University lacrosse players falsely acussed of rape _ a punishment the veteran prosecutor admitted was appropriate.

"This matter has been a fiasco. There's no doubt about it," said committee chairman F. Lane Williamson.

Nifong sat motionless, one hand resting over his mouth, as Williamson recounted how he engaged in dishonest and deceitful conduct. He said Nifong's early comments about the case _ which included a confident proclamation that he wouldn't allow Durham to become known for "a bunch of lacrosse players from Duke raping a black girl" _ were purposefully designed to boost his campaign for district attorney.

"At the time he was facing a primary, and yes, he was politically naive," Williamson said. "But we can draw no other conclusion that those initial statements he made were to further his political ambitions."

Nifong will not appeal the punishment, his lawyer said.

"He hopes this helps restore some of the confidence in the criminal justice system of North Carolina," said attorney David Freedman.

"On one hand, it's very devastating. On the other hand, he's been going through this process for a long time, so you always have some semblance of relief when the process is over with regardless of the outcome."

The North Carolina State Bar had charged Nifong with making misleading statements misleading and inflammatory comments about the three athletes, lying to both the court and bar investigators, and withholding critical DNA test results from the players' defense attorneys.

The committee, after deliberating Saturday afternoon for a little more than an hour, unanimously agreed with the bar on almost every charge, finding that Nifong's actions involved "dishonesty, fraud, deceit and misrepresentation"

"The case we have here is a clear case of intentional prosecutorial misconduct," Williamson said. "This should be a reminder to everyone the facts matter. It's not the allegation."

While Nifong's late offer to surrender his law license came as a surprise, the verdicts were not. Nifong acknowledged during sometimes tearful testimony Friday that he was likely to be punished for maybe getting "carried away a little bit" when talking about the case, admitting that some of his comments were improper.

Williamson also hinted during closing arguments the three-member panel would conclude that Nifong kept from the defense DNA test results that found genetic material from several males in the accuser's underwear and body, but none from any lacrosse player.

"How can you possibly explain that away?" said Williamson, who repeatedly interrupted Witt as he discussed the DNA testing during his closing statement.

"It wasn't just one little oversight," Williamson said later. "This was conduct over an extended period in a very high-profile case."

Aware of those test results, Nifong still pressed ahead with the case and won indictments against Dave Evans, Reade Seligmann and Collin Finnerty. State prosecutors later concluded the three players were "innocent" victims of a rogue prosecutor's "tragic rush to accuse."

Nifong's attorneys admitting Saturday their client made "multiple, egregious mistakes" as he pursued allegations a stripper was raped and beaten at a March 2006 party thrown by Duke's lacrosse team. But they insisted none of his mistakes were made intentionally.

"It didn't click," Nifong's attorney, Dudley Witt, said as he tried to explain away one of Nifong's errors. "His mind is just his mind. That's the way it works. It just didn't click."

Bar prosecutor Douglas Brocker told the disciplinary committee that as Nifong developed his case, he charged "forward toward condemnation and injustice," weaving a "web of deception that has continued up through this hearing."

"Mr. Nifong did not act as a minister of justice, but as a minister of injustice," Brocker said.

Nifong's offer resign and give up his law license isn't likely to end his troubles. The players' attorneys have pledged to seek criminal contempt charges next week in Durham from a judge who has already taken care to remind Nifong he has the authority to impose punishment.

The defense attorneys were enraged when Nifong, testifying Friday, appeared incapable of agreeing that no crime was committed. Asked late Friday if he still believed the accuser was attacked, Nifong paused for several seconds before answering that while he could not say it was a sexual assault, "something happened to make everybody leave that scene very quickly."

Williamson singled out that comment on Saturday when announcing Nifong's punishment.

"In the face of a declaration of innocence by the attorney general of North Carolina, it appears the defendant still believes the facts to be one way and the world now knows that is not the case," Williamson said.

While Williamson cited Nifong's often outlandish comments _ he called the lacrosse team a "a bunch of hooligans" at one point _ his failure to turn over all of the DNA evidence in his possession made up the most serious of the bar's allegations.

Nifong gave defense attorneys an initial report on the DNA testing in May 2006 that said private lab DNA Security Inc. had been unable to find a conclusive match between the accuser and any lacrosse players. But lab director Brian Meehan testified this week that he told Nifong as early as April 10, 2006 _ a week before Seligmann and Finnerty were indicted _ about the more detailed test results.

Nifong testified when he gave the defense the initial report, he "believed at the time that I had given them everything." In court documents and hearings in May, June and September, he told two different judges that he had no more evidence that could be considered helpful to the defense. He said he didn't realize until months later that the additional DNA information was missing.

"My first reaction was a variation of 'oh crap,'" Nifong said. "'I didn't give them this?'"

It was an argument that appeared to carry little weight with the committee.

"He knew. He admits he knew," Williamson said during Witt's closing. "How could he not know if he had read it? How could he not know?"

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