PITTSBURGH -- A legal battle between former Allegheny County medical examiner Dr. Cyril Wecht and U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan keeps heating up.

Wecht resigned in January 2006 after being indicted on charges of theft of honest services, mail fraud and wire fraud. He's accused of using county staff to do work for his high-profile private practice, trading cadavers for lab space at Carlow University and overbilling private clients using faked limousine bills.

In a motion filed on June 9, Buchanan accused Wecht's lawyers of having "repeatedly lied to the court, lied to the media, breached their ethical obligations as lawyers and flaunted the orders of this court."

But in a new filing on Friday, Wecht's lawyers said Buchanan wants to throw them in jail and suspend them from practicing law for taking positions with which the prosecution doesn't agree.

Wecht's attorneys, Jerry McDevitt and Mark Rush, called the motion against them "baseless" and said, "It is a hatchet job that is not worthy of the U.S. Attorney's office."

Both of them call Buchanan's news conference when Wecht was indicted "a media blitz" that put Wecht in a "devastatingly negative light" from which his reputation may never recover.

Wecht's lawyers argue that if their talking to the media deserves punishment by the court, that the U.S. attorney's office could be subject to the same thing.

Former U.S. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh is a member of Wecht's defense team. He filed an affidavit under oath affirming points that Wecht's other attorneys made in the media.

Thornburgh said Buchanan had wanted to have Wecht arrested because she claimed he was "a flight risk to Israel."

Thornburgh also swears he had to go over Buchanan's head to keep Wecht from facing a "perp walk" before news cameras.

Wecht's attorneys said their comments in a local newspaper are protected free speech.

They argue that prosecutors "are not attempting to jail counsel for telling lies. They are attempting to do so because it is the truth they fear."

The U.S. attorney's office had no comment Friday on the latest filing by Wecht's lawyers.

---

Related Links:
More Allegheny County News

Get RSS | E-Mail Alerts

---