U.S. Attorney James Hurd's announcement Friday of bribery charges being filed against former Sen. John Tutein, now an Innovative Communication Corp. vice president, contained the customary — and cautionary — reminder of his presumed innocence:
"The complaint is a document which describes the criminal offense upon which the defendant has been arrested and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until convicted in a court of law."
That is an important reminder. But it does not prevent many Virgin Islanders from hoping this is the first of many white-collar prosecutions Hurd will press.
When jurisdiction over serious criminal matters was transferred several years ago from the federal to the local courts, federal prosecutors in the Virgin Islands said they would begin to focus their efforts on public corruption and environmental pollution.
To date, relatively few such cases — especially public corruption cases — have been filed. This has led to cynicism among the citizenry and complacency in the bureaucracy.
In fact, few people expected the feds to prosecute Tutein, despite public charges by Sen. Allie-Allison Petrus in May, during consideration of the "Prosser bill," that Tutein in October 1998 offered him an envelope filled with hundred dollar bills in exchange for his support "on something coming up" involving ICC and its owner, Jeffrey Prosser.
A high-ranking federal official remarked on a recent trip here that a few well-placed prosecutions could do wonders in cleaning up some of the corrupt practices that have taken hold, and become accepted, in the territory.
We hope the Tutein charges mark the start of that trend.
