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6/19/2009 3:34 AM

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We'll say this about U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan: She doesn't surrender gracefully. Even when she dropped the charges against former Allegheny County Coroner Cyril Wecht this month, she still labeled him a criminal and blamed a federal court ruling for crippling her case.

Last year, a jury weighing corruption charges against Wecht deadlocked on all counts. Even though media interviews with jurors indicated that most had favored acquittal, Buchanan insisted she would take Wecht to trial again.

That plan foundered in May when a federal judge ruled that search warrants served on Wecht's private offices and a laptop computer were too general. The case began with an indictment on 84 counts, 43 were dismissed before trial and just 14 were left at the time of the judge's ruling.

Buchanan was defiant in defeat. She said in view of the court ruling she decided to dismiss the case when "there are probably a lot of other (emphasis added) criminals we could go after." While admitting that Wecht still enjoyed the presumption of innocence, she pointed out that "he wasn't acquitted of anything."

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Well, no he wasn't. But the point is that after years of investigation and two years of preparation between indictment and trial, Buchanan's office was not able to convince even a majority of 12 jurors that Wecht was guilty of any crime. They deadlocked after 50 hours of deliberation, indicating they gave plenty of consideration to the evidence.

The result had to be a professional embarrassment to Buchanan. She was once regarded as a rising star in the Justice Department and there was speculation about a brilliant political future. But she lost her highest-profile case and refused to admit defeat. Presumably, the Obama administration will get around to replacing her along with other Bush appointees.

When Buchanan first announced that she planned to try Wecht again, we questioned how much taxpayers' money had been thrown down this rat hole already, let alone how much would follow. In dropping the charges, Buchanan said allegations that the government had spent millions on the prosecutions were a "wild exaggeration." The cost, she said was more in the neighborhood of $500,000.

Only $500,000? That's an awful lot of money to spend on nothing.

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