CHMURA CASE DIMS BUCHER PROSPECTS

From the Capital Times

By John Nichols
It is no secret that Waukesha County District Attorney Paul Bucherwould liketo make the leap from his sleepy suburban perch to a higher rung onWisconsin's political ladder. But the veteran prosecutor, who has longnurtured speculationabout his prospects as a Republican contender for attorneygeneral, may well have hustled himself out of the running last week.
When jurors voted unanimously to acquit former Green Bay Packers tight endMark Chmura Saturday night, they also voted against Bucher, who had parlayedhis position of public trust into a role as Chmura's chief prosecutor. Andthose votes are likely to count more heavily against Bucher than any cast bydelegates to state Republican Party conventions.Like many a district attorney before him, Bucher saw a high-profileprosecution as his ticket to the political big time.
When a 17-year-old high school girl said Chmura raped her at a post-promparty, Bucher did not merely move to charge Chmura with sexual assault andchild enticement - as was entirely appropriate. He also moved to put himselfat the center of the prosecution, taking personal charge of the case andplacing himself - rather than an assistant district attorney with specializedexperience in prosecuting rape cases - in front of the Court TV cameras, whichturned the Chmura trial into a nationwide spectacle.
Indeed, Chmura's flamboyant lawyer, Gerald Boyle, closed his successfuldefense of the former Packers star by pointing to Bucher and declaring, "Theone person who caused us to be here is him. He didn't come to you (the jurors)with proof. He came to you with vindictiveness."
Boyle's defense style was theatrical, to be sure. But it would not haveworked if Bucher had not seemed to be more interested in television time thanmounting an effective prosecution.
In his final statement to the jury, Bucher spent much of his time whiningabout Boyle's criticism and then announcing that he could "take it." Bucher's"bring-it-on" style actually lent credibility to what would otherwise havebeen a shaky charge by Boyle that the district attorney had manipulated theprocess with an eye toward buffing his own reputation - rather than achievingjustice.
Boyle would have gotten far less traction if the prosecutor he was facingwas an experienced assistant district attorney who knew how to manage theunique demands of a sexual assault prosecution. That's one of the primaryreasons why smart district attorneys so frequently hand off theirhighest-profile cases to assistants who have spent years, even decades,learning the intricacies of demanding areas of the law.
If Boyle had faced any other elected prosecutor, it is doubtful he couldhave prevailed as dramatically as he did against the swaggering, dangerouslyself-absorbed Bucher.
How different would this trial have been if a steady hand like MilwaukeeCounty District Attorney E. Michael McCann or Wisconsin Attorney General JimDoyle had been in that courtroom to calmly, judiciously and effectivelychallenge Boyle? In the unlikely circumstance that Bucher decides to pursuehis political ambitions in 2002, that is a question a lot of Wisconsiniteswill be asking.