Even inside the offices of the United States Attorney for the Northern District of California, some prosecutors have questioned the wisdom of continuing to pursue Mr. Bonds, according to several former attorneys from the office....
“It’s a questionable use of resources, especially at a time when the budget is being cut, hiring is frozen and fraudsters are running amok,” said Richard Cutler, a former federal prosecutor who now works in Mountain View for the law firm Dechert L.L.P. “To have two or three attorneys, investigators and paralegals working full time on a perjury case against a baseball player raises questions about the prioritizing of prosecutions.”
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“At the office or down at the gym, normal people might wonder why this is going on so long; it’s hard for some people to understand,” said Dave Anderson, who until recently served as the first assistant United States attorney. “But you have to understand that for prosecutors the grand jury is a cornerstone, and you can’t take perjury lightly.”
It is unknown how much time and money the government has spent on Balco. Jack Gillund, a spokesman for the United States Attorney’s Office, declined to release figures detailing the number of hours worked by prosecutors and employees, or how much money has been spent. He cited a policy of not commenting on ongoing litigation.
The case has been led by two career prosecutors working out of the United States Attorney’s Office in San Jose: Mr. Nedrow, described by legal observers as amiable and deceptively laconic, and Matt Parrella, a tenacious, hard-driving New Yorker.
Source:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/11/us/11bcbonds.html
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