BEEF ON WECHT, PART FOUR


or, when the feds read cyril.

Remember those strange, unsettling -- oh, who are we kidding: scary and insane -- letters that our indicted former coroner, Cyrl H. Wecht, M.D., J.D., A.S.S., wrote to TWM reader Jerry Schiller? Of course you do. Unless you repressed them. And if you did, I really can't blame you.

Remember those posts last week, when I suggested that a judge's decision to seat an anonymous jury in Dr. Wecht's corruption trial may well have been to prevent the good paranoiac from threatening or intimidating those who sit in judgement against him? Especially if they're Germans? Of course you do. Unless you ignored them because you can only stand so much raging dementia in one week. And if you did, I really can't blame you.

If you do remember those things, this article in this morning's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette will interest you. It seems that federal prosecutors have been using those letters -- from which Paula Reed ward quotes liberally in her piece, and which you can now see in their original, loathsome forms here and here -- to argue that the jury should remain anonymous.

Seems like a pretty good argument to me. And, imagine, to anyone who's read them. Except, perhaps, for Dr. Wecht's lawyers:

Dr. Wecht's defense lawyers characterized the letters as part of a long-running exchange between the two men and called the government's allegations a "pathetic attempt to smear" their client...

...Defense attorney Jerry McDevitt said that the only involvement this "alleged witness has is that the two of them have been involved in a colorful letter writing campaign to each other and to newspaper editors regarding various issues of the day, with both trading creative insults with each other."

I'm no expert on the law, and Lord knows it would take a lobotomy, or at least an excision of my soul, to write like most lawyers do, but nonetheless I think I've cracked the code of Mr. McDevitt's fancy language here. Pathetic attempt to smear means clear example of my client's vindictive lunacy that I wish you wouldn't consider, colorful letter writing campaign means thoughtful letters to the editor from Mr. Schiller, followed by not-so-veiled threats and incomprehensible ramblings from my client, and trading creative insults means Dr. Wecht repeatedly implied that Mr. Schiller was an anti-Semite and a Nazi, and Mr. Schiller responded with surprising grace and admirable good humor.

I'm guessing that Judge Arthur J. Schwab, being something of an expert on the law and now a reader of those vile and filthy letters, will be able to crack Mr. McDevitt's code too. If not, I'd be happy to help.

Posted: Wed - December 12, 2007 at 10:37 AM          

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