Originally Posted by Whiteknight

As far as I can find out it would be nearly impossible to push a malicious prosecution case against a DA in the state of PA.
I think that they enjoy a form of sovereign immunity. Our DA's are elected. Running for 4 year terms.

Originally Posted by Whiteknight

I watched our recently elected DA charge a neighbor youth with second degree murder. Everything was on a video camera in the neighborhood. He was nothing more than an unwitting accomplice in the incident. He had no previous knowledge regarding what was about to happen and after the other thug fired the shots he quickly drove away. The DA could not enter any evidence indicating a prior conspiracy or knowledge regarding what went down. when the shots were fired he started to drive away. The shooter jumped in his car. The neighbor simply dropped him off a few blocks away. To make the charge stick in court the DA, under PA law, had to prove a preconceived plan of escape. Trouble is there was no such plan. All parties to this action told the law exactly what went down. The nearby school's high-res security camera recorded it all, video and sound. It cost the kid's parents about 50 grand in legal fees. When the kid finally went to trial the trial judge hauled the lawyers and the DA back into his chambers and ripped the DA a new hide. The judge could be heard in the courtroom yelling at the DA that he should have never brought this case to trial as he had not one bit of evidence to back the charge. The kid spent a bunch of time in jail before his family could raise the bail. The family is Mexican. Been up here for a number of years. Decent honest hard working people I am proud to call friends. I helped the one daughter through her studies to become a citizen. Their one son just got mixed up with some bad actors.
I have seen other cases where they knew they could not get a conviction but felt that costing you a pile of money in lawyers was a just form of punishment.