It's the problem with prosecutors and career cases.

     Win them and you're golden.  Lose them and you're remembered along with the pair that blew the O.J. Simpson case, Marcia Clark and Chris Darden.  After the State prosecution of Michael McGee Jr. blew up in court yesterday, don't be surprised if people start calling Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm "Marcia"!

     As everybody knows by now, the State prosecutions of Michael McGee Jr. have been suspended based on the failure of the prosecution to turn over transcripts of translated arabic conversations in a timely fashion.  According to arguments made yesterday, information in arabic conversations between an FBI Informant and a government agent that have not yet been translated may (and it's important to emphasize the word "may") give rise to a claim of entrapment.

     Although the recorded conversations have been available to both sides for quite a while, translated transcripts of some conversations were not produced by the State until Monday (the first day of trial).  Presumably, this was because it was Federal prosecutors who decided to have certain conversations translated - and the translations did not become available until recently.  This led the McGee defense team to suggest that there was collusion between State and Federal authorites to "frame" McGee.

     In all honesty, I think Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Dennis Moroney may have been a bit unfair in his harsh criticism of the DA's Office.  After all, if the recordings were in fact available to both sides, there was nothing stopping the defense from having their own transcriptions made.

     That said, it has been apparent from the beginning of this case (almost a year ago) that this would not be your typical criminal case.  As such, it would not have been unreasonable to expect the prosecution to make sure that all it's "i's" were dotted and it's "t's" were crossed well in advance of trial.  In other words, you have to anticipate the things that may blow up and prepare accordingly.

     Turning over transcripts of conversations on the morning of jury selection in any case is an invitation to disaster.  Not surprisingly, a disaster is precisely what the State prosecution has become - at least from a public perception point of view.  This is especially true among those who have believed all along that McGee is some sort of political prisoner.

     Candidly, I've always been surprised that the MIlwaukee County DA's Office pushed to have the State charges against McGee tried first.  The State charges largely come from evidence obtained through the Federal bribery investigation.  As such, the State has been dependent all along on the Feds disclosing and sharing evidence gained through their investigation.  While I know that the U.S. Attorney's Office is committed to cooperation, Federal cases proceed under different rules and at a different pace than State prosecutions.

     Beyond this, while the State charges against McGee are certainly serious, they pale in comparison to the ones in the Federal case.  If McGee is convicted in Federal court, he may well be looking at a lengthy non-parolable sentence governed by the Federal Sentencing Guidelines.  In the event of a Federal conviction and a State conviction, I've always expected that McGee would be allowed to serve any State time that might be imposed concurrent with his Federal sentence anyway. 

     After yesterday's developments, if there is a conviction in Federal court, I wouldn't be surprised to see any State charges against McGee resolved short of trial.

     By no means does what happened yesterday get Michael McGee Jr. off the hook.  At the same time, it's definitely a win for the McGee defense team and a loss for the Milwaukee DA's Office.

     On a personal political level, it's also a  huge loss for first-term Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm (who's up for re-election in November).  This is certainly the most high profile case of his tenure as DA - and it's not off to a very good start.  If there was a strong candidate considering running against him (and to my knowledge, there's not - at least as of yet), what happened yesterday is the type of thing that could cause him some major problems at the polls.

     My guess is that, one way or the other, the Federal prosecution will take the DA's Office off the hook. In the short term though, Chisholm is learning the perils of what happens when a high-profile case goes bad.

     Just call him "Marcia"!