Mississippi Cardiologist Won't Go to Prison for Online Dating
A couple of months ago I put up a post about federal prosecutors' pursuit of Dr. Roger Weiner, an outspoken Mississippi cardiologist who was charged with Mann Act violations for using a Memphis-based website while in Mississippi to meet and date adult women. FBI agents posting as prostitutes repeatedly tried to get Weiner to agree to for money for sex. Each time, he explcitly turned them down, at one point writing to one in a chat room, "I'm not interested in a hooker." They arrested him and charged him anyway.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Neal Biggers Jr. dismissed all charges against Weiner, ruling that the federal courts didn't have jurisdiction in the case. Biggers' opinion strongly suggested the case against Weiner was politically motivated, and came down hard on federal prosecutors, concluding:
The agents repeatedly played the roles of inducers in the present case. Their actions were nothing less than blatant, though unsuccessful, attempts to manufacture federal jurisdiction and are reminiscent of the behavior of the agents in one of the seminal cases on manufactured jurisdiction.
Biggers then goes on to compare Weiner's case to the facts in United States v. Archer, in which, as indicated, federal agents blatantly manufactured a federal crime.
Of course, Weiner won't be compensated for the time, money, and personal stress he spent defending himself from these phony charges. And if you think there's a chance in hell the federal agents who set Weiner up or the prosecutors who brought this bogus case against him will be sanctioned or disciplined in any significant way, well, I've got a judge in Mississippi I'd be willing to sell you.
