February 8, 2016

Another Chuck McCullough Count, I guess

I've been away for a few days.  Now I'm back.

A few readers of this blog may have noticed that I tend to focus on a number of issues; climate science, church state separation, fact-checking the Tribune-Review braintrust and so on.  But one of my pet topics is the absurdly long time it had taken Allegheny County to finally get former Allegheny Council member into a court room for a trial.

He was found guilty at the end of July and sentenced to 2 and a 1/2 to 5 years in mid-December.

And while I was away, this happened:
A Common Pleas judge Friday granted a former Allegheny County councilman’s request to remain free pending his appeal to state Superior Court.
So I guess we need to start a new day-count.

It's been 192 days since Chuck McCullough was found guilty.

Hey, fans of mid-90s TV: Do you remember "My So-Called Life"?  How surprised would you be to find out that the entire run of that show was shorter than 192 days?  That's right first episode aired August 25, 1994 and the last on January 26, 1995 - 153 days.

But let's not dwell in teenage angst.  Let's look at another couple of high profile corruption cases:
  • Bernie Madoff pleaded guilty on March 12, 2009 to the charges connected to a massive Ponzi scheme and was in prison by July 14, 2009 - 124 days between the guilty plea and the beginning of his prison sentence
  • Scooter Libby was found guilty on charges related to perjury on March 6, 2007 and had his sentence commuted by the war criminal George W Bush on July 7, 2007 - 123 days.
Surely those cases are not more complicated than Chuck McCullough's.

And yet...

That's all I'm saying.

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