Justice Carruthers accepted the jury's deadlock on the rape counts a day after one juror reported suspicions to him that another juror, Lloyd E. Constantine, a lawyer with professional and social ties to both Mr. Vance and his opponent in the last election, might have been holding the prosecution to unfair standards.
In 1999, one found him guilty of corruption even though no money was alleged to have changed hands the normal standard for prosecution.
"Tapes don't automatically lead to prosecution, because the legal standard is one of reasonableness," said Austin Sarat, a professor of law and political science at Amherst College.
As part of the settlement the bank agreed to plead guilty to a criminal charge of wire fraud across the Atlantic, entering into the by now standard deferred prosecution agreement with the US Department of Justice.
If the conduct allegedly continued and did lead to a formal charge of harassment being made, then the allegations would still need to be proved by the prosecution to the criminal standard of proof in order to succeed.
A preliminary hearing is held to determine if there is probable cause for a case to go to trial, an outcome most Colorado legal experts consider a near formality because the standard the prosecution must meet is not stringent.
"Unlike standard deferred prosecution agreements, which require the accused to plead guilty or no contest to the charges before a probationary period begins, Professor Harran was not required to enter a plea to any criminal charge".
It was not intended to meet legal standards for prosecution.
But it is also true that since 2004 the Defense Department has radically changed the way it handles sexual abuse in the military, including encouraging victims to come forward, expanding access to treatment and toughening standards for prosecution.
The case also invites scrutiny of police who appear to have sought prosecutions based on a standard of investigative rigour below that which they would expect of fellow officers.
If true, this would cast a dim light on the way things were done at the NYSE, where Mr Greenberg used to sit on the board; but it need not constitute "fraudulent" manipulation, the normal standard in prosecutions.Were all this not enough, AIG is still at the heart of another investigation into sleazy sales practices in the insurance industry.
