Posted on 03/19/2009 9:17:06 PM PDT by STARWISE
If U.S. Attorney Pat Fitzgerald was still thinking about appealing the light sentence given Fast Eddie Vrdolyak, a ruling in an unrelated appellate case last week might have changed his mind.
Fitzgerald had appealed a lenient sentence in a case of consumer fraud, with the result that Judge Richard Posner actually ordered the defendant acquitted, adding a rebuke to prosecutors that was, even for Posner, sharply worded.
Fitzgerald’s spokesman told me that the Vrdolyak matter is “still under review” and he had no comment on Posner’s ruling.
Vrdolyak, after pleading guilty in a $1.5 million financial fraud, was sentenced last month to five years’ probation and a $50,000 fine. The 84-year-old trial judge not only set Vrdolyak free but practically offered to wash and wax his limo.
Fitzgerald has been putting our political crooks behind bars for more than eight years now. His record was nearly perfect until Vrdolyak walked. Fitzgerald said he night appeal the leniency of sentence.
In a decision last Thursday that drew no media coverage—but then, we can’t expect our newspapers to cover the news any more—Judge Posner accused Fitzgerald’s office of “a pattern of improper argumentation in this litigation that does no credit to the Justice Department.”
Writing for a unanimous three-judge appellate panel, Posner called for “an appropriate sanction” for prosecutorial misconduct in the case.
The scolding was all the sharper because Posner does not have a reputation for siding with criminal defendants. His reputation is that of a public intellectual of the “law and economics” school who writes a book or two or three every year.
Here’s the background. In May 2003, Charles Farinella bought 1.6 million bottles of Henri’s Salad Dressing. The label on the bottles said “best when purchased by” a date ranging from January to June 2003. Farinella pasted over these labels with new ones changing the date to May or July 2004. Then he sold the bottles to dollar stores.
In July 2006 Farinella and a codefendant, Ross Marks, were charged with wire fraud, product tampering and violating the Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act. Marks pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 2½ years. Farinella was convicted by a jury. A judge sentenced him to five years’ probation and a $75,000 fine. Fitzgerald appealed the leniency of sentence.
Civil libertarians often accuse prosecutors of abusing the wire fraud, mail fraud and racketeering statutes. Posner, who has expressed skepticism of “theft of honest service” charges hinged on mail fraud or wire fraud, does not address those issues in the Farinella case. Instead, he said the government improperly argued a “threadbare case” based on a bureaucrat’s testimony that was “not just improper and inadmissible but incoherent.”
An assistant U.S. attorney told the jury, “Ladies and gentlemen, don’t let the defendant and his high-paid lawyer buy his way out of this.” Any defense attorney in the country would have jumped to object to that; Farinella’s did so and was sustained. Then the prosecutor said, “You have to earn justice. You can’t buy it.” Another objection, sustained again.
Posner wrote that the trial judge “should have made clear to the prosecutor after sustaining the first objection that one more false step and he would declare a mistrial. . . . [H]ad the government presented enough evidence to sustain a conviction, we would have reversed the judgment and ordered a new trial on the basis of the prosecutor’s misconduct.”
Because Posner directed an acquittal on all counts, the issues of sentencing and prosecutorial misconduct were “academic.” However, he urged “an appropriate sanction” for such misconduct and observed, “The government’s appellate lawyer told us that the prosecutor’s superior would give her a talking-to. We are not impressed by the suggestion.”
So—a rare setback for U.S. Attorney Fitzgerald. But questions about what exactly the law means by mail fraud, wire fraud, racketeering, and “honest services” remain unresolved after decades of court actions.
Writing for a unanimous three-judge appellate panel, Posner called for “an appropriate sanction” for prosecutorial misconduct in the case.
~~~
That has to sting.
~~PING!
bump for later
I don't think the White House can handle those two egos - maybe not even the whole of DC.
OT:
Aren’t the ninety days up re: Blago case for Fitz?
I think it’s April, as I recall ... but I
have a sneaky suspicion it could turn into
a big fuzzball .........
~~~~
“A bill proposed by State Rep. Keith Farnham (D-Elgin) would strip state office holders of their pension if they are impeached. Current law dictates that Blagojevich remains eligible to collect a pension unless he is convicted of a felony. The bill has already passed the House and now heads to the Senate.
When asked if a Son of Sam-type law be imposed to keep criminals from profiting from their misdeeds, Madigan said the state should wait to see what the indictment against Blagojevich says. It’s expected next month.
http://www.wgil.com/localnews.php?xnewsaction=fullnews&newsarch=032009&newsid=190
Criminally so... corruption central.
Five stokes ‘o the cat would sting a bit more.
Actually, hanging seems a good idea in that prosecutrix’s case.
Besides, there are too many lawyers, anyway.
;-)
Posner is like the #1 cited judge outside POTUS. He made Fitz look like a fool.
SCOTUS, not POTUS.
Maybe Scooter Libby’s attorneys should have tried to appeal to a higher fed court, considering the outcome of this particular case.
Fast Eddie (a Republican, by the way) Vrdolyak has been a colorful local to Chicago politician for years. I believe he is also an attorney. The Dems have been after him to nail him on something for years. That wasn’t too hard to do because Fast Eddie always has lived on the edge of legality. However, I really like him, always have, as he speaks his mind and says things straight politically, so I’m glad to hear that he only got a minimal sentence and basically beat the rap. It is particularly enjoyable that Pat Fitzgerald has had to eat crow and not get his way for once. Fitzgerald himself, in my opinion, also skates on thin ice as far as legality goes. Witness what he trumped up on Scooter Libby, which was basically as criminal as the charges Fitz lodged against Scooter. Good to see him have some come uppance.
I remember watching city council hearings on TV back in the Council Wars. Some guy asked Vrdolyak if he stabbed people in the back.
His reply: “No, I stab them right in the heart”
What’s worrisome is that Fitz is sitting on some big, complex terrorism cases & doesn’t seem to be putting much energy into them.
“His reply: “No, I stab them right in the heart”
LOL! Sounds just like him. Shoots from the hip.
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