Raleigh, N.C. ? His law license lost and reputation in tatters, Mike Nifong seemingly can fall no further. But the disgraced prosecutor who committed “intentional prosecutorial misconduct” in his pursuit of the Duke lacrosse rape case faces an uncertain – and likely troubled – future.

The falsely accused players and their families, having racked up millions of dollars in legal bills, appear likely to file civil lawsuits against the disbarred prosecutor. Their attorneys want a judge to consider holding Nifong in criminal contempt for lying to the court.

“Some people will take that as being mean-spirited and kicking somebody when they’re down,” defense attorney Joseph Cheshire said Sunday. “But we believe that this issue is enormously important and it carries significant precedent and (the judge) ought to be the one to make that decision because it happened in his court.”

Nifong was disbarred Saturday, a ruling that came one day after he stunned his staff and own attorneys by announcing through tears he planned to resign as Durham County’s district attorney. In imposing punishment, a disciplinary committee called Nifong’s prosecution of Dave Evans, Collin Finnerty and Reade Seligmann a politically motivated “fiasco.”

The five-day ethics trial ended Nifong’s three-decade legal career, which he spent entirely as a prosecutor in Durham County. He was generally viewed as an honest lawyer before taking over the case of a woman who told police she was raped at a March 2006 lacrosse team party where she was hired to perform as a stripper.

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, whose office took over the case in January, later declared that the trio were “innocent” victims of Nifong’s “tragic rush to accuse.”

Nifong’s attorney, David Freedman, said Nifong expects to send in his letter of resignation this week.