The charges were brought against him by a special prosecutor, Angela B. Corey, the state attorney for the Jacksonville area, who was appointed by Gov. Rick Scott after the local prosecutor stepped aside amid criticism of his handling of the case.
A14 Homeland Security Agenda Set After five months of a relatively low-profile tenure leading the Homeland Security Department, Michael Chertoff, a former appeals court judge, Justice Department official and prosecutor, stepped out this month, detailing an agenda that provoked some opposition in Congress.
After five months of a relatively low-profile tenure leading the department, Mr. Chertoff, a former appeals court judge, Justice Department official and prosecutor, stepped out this month, detailing an agenda that provoked some opposition in Congress.
On Friday, October 10, despite an intense rainstorm, hundreds marched in Clayton, Missouri demanding that the county prosecutor step down.
When do state prosecutors step in?
In their papers, prosecutors stepped up their threat to seek the harshest penalty against Mr. Hanssen -- the death penalty -- or life imprisonment without parole.
Prosecutors stepped up their activity last January, when the president of the China Construction Bank was reportedly put under house arrest after Chinese and American regulators found irregular business practices at operations of the Bank of China that he used to oversee.
Genrikh Pavda, Mr. Khodorkovsky's principal lawyer, who was not among those accused of misconduct, called the prosecutors' step "complete nonsense," saying the lawyers were simply acting to protect their client's rights.
The stakes for the defendants were raised when federal prosecutors stepped in to charge Mr. Mullet and 15 others, including several of his children and other relatives, with federal conspiracy and hate-crime charges that carry potential sentences of several decades.
"If these are cases that can be tried successfully by a prosecutor, hopefully we see other prosecutors stepping up across the country," Jaros says.
"The minute [a prosecutor] steps outside of that courtroom, they're treated just like anybody else making those comments.
