The federal government has spent — at a minimum — $204,226 to prosecute Dr. Cyril H. Wecht. But legal experts say the total is a conservative estimate and would climb higher if prosecutors decide to retry the corruption case against the former Allegheny County coroner. Jurors, who said last week they were hopelessly deadlocked, are expected to return to court Monday to make a final attempt at reaching a verdict. “It could cost several hundred thousand dollars, maybe even several million,” said Bennett Gershman, a law professor at Pace University in White Plains, N.Y. Wecht’s lawyers say the evidence presented during the trial attempts to link their client to thefts totaling about $1,600, including $3.96 in telephone charges for faxes sent from the coroner’s office. Prosecutors have said the scheme cost taxpayers more than $1 million, including what they argue was Wecht’s illegal use of county employees and resources. The jurors have deliberated for nine days over three weeks following the seven-week trial, which began Jan. 28. If the case results in a hung jury, the judge can declare a mistrial and prosecutors could decide to retry Wecht. Wecht, 77, of Squirrel Hill is accused of using his public office for private gain. He is charged with 41 counts of fraud and theft for using county employees and resources to benefit his private pathology business, bilking private clients through inflated travel expenses and trading cadavers from the county morgue for private laboratory space. The Administrative Office for U.S. Courts estimates it costs about $5,500 a day to operate a courtroom during trial, based on what it figures is a $60 fee for each juror and factoring in time logged by judges and their staffs, among other costs. Based on the 23 days of testimony in the Wecht trial using the $5,500 estimate, the bill to taxpayers would be $126,500. But the average daily amount paid to jurors serving in federal trials here is $108 a day. That amount includes extra fees for mileage and parking; jurors who live far away also get meals and lodging, according to the federal Clerk of Court Office in Pittsburgh. The extra cost of seating 12 jurors and six alternates would be $20,700 for the 23 days of trial. Nine days of deliberations added another $11,448. Prosecutors spent $45,578.35 to cover half the cost of making three copies of the 300,000 pages of trial exhibits, court records show. What couldn’t be calculated is how much prosecutors spent to house witnesses for at least 12 nights at a hotel and the cost of airfare to fly them in from across the country. The U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment for this story. The bottom line also does not include the salaries paid to the prosecutors, their staff and three FBI agents assigned to the case full time. Laurie Levenson, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles and a former federal prosecutor, said prosecutors budget by office, not by case. “I think almost intentionally they don’t put dollar amounts on cases, because it sends the wrong message,” said Levenson, who explained that could unfairly put a price on justice. Plus, she said, the prosecutors and investigators would be paid their salaries anyway. “That’s why I think the numbers can be misleading,” Levenson said. That can become an issue, however, should a mistrial be declared, and Wecht is tried again. Though some costs would not be repeated, there would certainly be a trade-off, she said. “The question is what cases you will not be able to bring, because you retried this one,” Levenson said. Though it has happened after mistrials in other lengthy cases, retrials can be controversial, said Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond. “This is part of the system — the notion that if you don’t win the first time, you should expect some push-back from the public,” Tobias said. “There have been questions about this case from the beginning, more so than in others.”

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