a dog-eared town

Yawn.

Does anyone really care about this story other than the prosecutor and Dodds himself?

A glut of medical evidence proved too much for former congressional candidate Gary Dodds to overcome yesterday as he was convicted of three charges — a felony and two misdemeanors — for staging an April 2006 car crash and 27-hour disappearance.

Contrary to some politicians in this state, there is a finite amount of money to be spent on courts, court cases and trials. Can anyone rationally say that this was the best use of the state’s money to prosecute this three ring circus?

Despite the convictions, prosecutors indicated yesterday that Dodds may spend no time behind bars, noting that they charged him mainly because of the cost of searching for him.

What, you couldn’t bill him for the amount?

Ok, so you’re trying to get the cost recovered, so you then go and spend even more money on this just to get a conviction?

What if the judge decides to not make him pay restitution? Or even worse does send him to jail costing the state even more money?

Velardi, the county attorney, said the trial cost about $2,000 to prosecute. He said both he and Miscio spent a “significant amount of time” preparing for the trial, but that they would both have been working anyway. He did not say exactly how many hours were spent getting ready for trial.

“For the outcome we received, we think it was worth it,” he said.

Er, I’m thinking the amount is WAY above $2,000 for the cost of this trial. I saw all the props and witnesses used during this trial. And then there’s the “significant amount of time” preparing. The fact he didn’t say how many hours spent in trial preparation makes me think it was a ridiculous amount of time.

Of course you think it was worth it, you got a conviction for 2 misdemeanors and a felony falsifying evidence. That’s it. And it wasn’t even a violent crime. I’d think they would have gone for a civil trial but what do I know.

After everything that has gone on in this trial and with all the money spent and time and energy, it seems to me as a taxpayer to be a waste of time. There are all sorts of violent crimes being committed and the three weeks, plus the trial preparations could have gone towards prosecuting a criminal that was a threat to the public and warranted all this attention.