US Attorney Says Freed Illegal Gambling Defendant Not Innocent
Another example of the arrogance and refusal to abide by the law which it supposedly serves came from the US Department of Justice Friday, as a US Attorney said a woman whose conviction for illegal gambling was overturned was not innocent. Drew Wrigley, who had prosecuted Susan Bala for running an illegal gambling business leading to incarceration for over a year until an appeals court ruled he misused state law, said her lawsuit failed because she's not innocent of the charges.Bala was charged with not paying required taxes on her simulcast horse racing business, as required by state law in North Dakota. But an appeals court found there was insufficient evidence to justify the federal charges, and that prosecutors had misinterpreted the law.
Bala had already served almost two years of her twenty-seven month sentence by the time she was freed by the appellate order. She sued both the state and federal authorities for wrongful imprisonment.
In order to pursue the action, Bala required a certificate of innocence, which the courts refused this week to grant. Despite the embarrassment of seeing his case reversed for misapplying the law, Wrigley continued to assert Bala's guilt even after her release.
"The reason he didn't issue that order is that she's not actually innocent." Wrigley maintained of the judge's decision.
Even after a court has spoken, US prosecutors will still insist that gambling operators are guilty until proven innocent of violating whatever law they dream up, ignoring the rulings which supposedly bind them.
