Jury foreman alleges political prosecution in Pennsylvania

The strange case of the Democratic forensic pathologist, the $3.96 fax bill, and the two-year federal investigation...

Comments

[Norman Costa]

Lindsay,

I hope you continue to profile and link to these incidents of prosecutorial abuse. In a prior post on the Spitzer matter I mentioned my observations in my county of residence in NY State. It happens at all levels of the justice system. Some of it is blatantly political. In other cases it involves a cozy relationship between prosecutors and rich businessmen or private citizens. Sometimes the abuse takes the form of a refusal to prosecute. Since the discretion to prosecute is absolute, the victims of predatory contractors or con artists have little recourse. Civil action is an option, but not always a practical one.

Watching "Law and Order" on TV (one of my favorite shows) is informative about how big county prosecutors work - at least in the NY, NJ, and CT metropolitan area. But go north of Westchester County and the County Prosecutor's Office is a horse of another color. Jack McCoy, Serina, Briscoe and Greene are nowhere to be found in sufficient numbers, nor with the latitude and resources to go after a lot of bad guys that should be put in jail.

There is also an informal process (but obvious to anyone who follows such matters) for the prosecution or nonprosecution of county and state public officials and their friends and family. A county prosecutor might have a conflict regarding the investigation of a particular official. So in a round robin fashion, the investigations and decisions to prosecute are given to another county. The matter sits in the other county for a year or more and then the stand-in county prosecutor announces that an investigation did not yield sufficient evidence to be certain of a conviction after a trial. And so the game of musical chairs (musical county prosecutors) proceeds when the objective is NOT to prosecute the son of the top prosecutor in a different county; or NOT to prosecute a corrupt sheriff. This system of you scratch my back and I'll not prosecute yours even crosses political lines. At the county prosecutor level they take care of their own.

So, Lindsay, please keep up the education of our electorate. The corruption and abuse exists at all levels.

[Dabodius]

*sputtering*
But...But... Rob Sherman says he was framed for domestic battery by a conspiracy of local Republicans and jailed for four months, when his real "crime" was merely being a loudmouth church-state-separationist!

Where's the outrage?

Or is he lying?

[Lindsay Beyerstein]

Maybe there was more outrage back in 1998.

[Corporate Political]

Political prosecutions, sure but corporate prosecutions, harumph.

So corporations get off and politicians get.... investigated....

[Lawsuit loan]

I think you are right as outrage can 0nly be the reason.