The federal criminal case against former Allegheny County Coroner Dr. Cyril H. Wecht is over. U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan announced today that she is dropping the remaining counts of fraud and theft.
"We decided the right thing to do at this point is to dismiss the case," Buchanan said.
Wecht, 78, of Squirrel Hill was accused of using his elected office for private gain.
A grand jury indicted Wecht in January 2006 on 81 counts of fraud and theft. Prosecutors later dropped more than half of the charges, after threatening to file a superceding indictment.
A mistrial was declared in April 2008 because jurors failed to reach a verdict on any of the 41 remaining counts following seven weeks of testimony and three weeks of deliberations.
Immediately after the first trial, prosecutors said they planned to retry Wecht, this time on 14 counts.
On May 14, U.S. District Judge Sean McLaughlin of Erie, who took control of the case after the mistrial, dismissed all the evidence for the remaining counts.
McLaughlin ruled that FBI agents used improper search warrants to seize boxes of private autopsy files from Wecht's private office on Wood Street and a laptop computer used by a secretary who worked at the county coroner's office and for Wecht's pathology consulting business.
Buchanan said she felt her office could have successfully challenged the judge's ruling on the computer but doubted it could have overturned his ruling on the boxes.
Buchanan said she still believes Wecht broke the law and would retry the case if she could.
"He wasn't acquitted of anything. It was a hung jury," Buchanan said. "However, everybody in our society is innocent until proven guilty."
Wecht's lawyers could not be immediately reached for comment.
They said two weeks ago after McLaughlin's ruling that they hoped Buchanan would drop the case.
