And, if said ''public official'' were also an elected official, said civil actions would be deliberately timed (with of course some PR assistance) to render him (or her, or it) utterly unelectable evermore.
Suum cuique, as they used to say in the Roman Republic.
-- Do not kill a corrupt and ambitious man, but do what is worse; learn his desires and deny him all at every turn. Let him live in his futility. Nemesis herself could not punish him so well. -- Publius Scaevola, Pontifex Maximus of Rome, 77 B.C.
Your are a more civil man than I my friend. I'd beat the public official to within an inch of their life and leave them for dead in some backwood area.
But that's just me! lol