The Salt Lake Tribune
1/16/2000

 
Weighing the Costs 

Davis County Attorney Melvin Wilson spoke with the hubris of a 
true bureaucrat when he recently said that it is wrong to let cost 
stand in the way of desire.
In this case, Wilson was saying that no matter how much it cost 
taxpayers, he would retry psychiatrist Robert Weitzel on charges 
that he murdered five patients. The doctor had been charged with 
first-degree murder but convicted of lesser offenses. Recently, 2nd 
District Judge Thomas Kay granted Weitzel's request for a new trial 
on grounds that the prosecution had failed to tell defense attorneys 
about a medical expert's testimony.
Weitzel's first trial went on for more than a month and cost 
citizens more than $160,000 -- some $70,000 more than what 
prosecutors had budgeted for it. Despite this, Wilson indicated he 
won't let financial considerations figure in any decision to retry 
the case, which his office already has promised to do.
This is sheer rhetoric to be kind and buffoonery to be more 
accurate. Cost figures in everything a government, any government, 
decides to do, whether its leaders and functionaries care to admit 
it or not. Sure, there are plenty of examples where cost does not 
seem to be a factor, but if such spending continues unabated, it 
eventually does become one.
While the need to prosecute crime is important, it does not 
bestow carte blanche on prosecutors to blow tax dollars. No 
government functionary -- whether he is a president, governor, or 
even a county attorney -- has the right to ignore or dismiss with 
disdain the implied and legitimate obligation to be responsible with 
public money.
As a point in fact, neither Wilson nor any other public official 
would be occupying their offices if it were not for money -- money 
taxed from citizens for the express purpose of running the machinery 
of government.
Whether to retry Weitzel is a legitimate decision for Wilson and 
his staff to make, but that does not negate the fact that as a 
public official with a public office and public budget, the county 
attorney has an obligation to taxpayers to operate his office and 
conduct his public business in a financially responsible manner.

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