Finally, Utah's Olympic bribery mess has been put in its place — as a footnote to one of the most successful Winter Games ever produced.
The dismissal of charges against Tom Welch and Dave Johnson on Friday illustrates how overblown the entire scandal had become. It was a scandal that in reality belonged squarely on the shoulders of the International Olympic Committee, which had demanded lavish gifts and favors of bid cities for years.
In the end, Salt Lake City's Olympic legacy remains solidly intact, but the same cannot be said for the reputation of federal prosecutors, who came away from this looking inept and vindictive.
U.S. District Judge David Sam, in his decision to dismiss, could not have been more blunt. The case, he said, "offends my sense of justice." Sam was the judge who originally threw out the charges against Welch and Johnson, saying that what they did may have been unethical, but it was not, in any sense, illegal.
The 10th Circuit Court in Denver, which has a curious record when it comes to reviewing obvious cases from Utah, reinstated the charges. Apparently, the court bought the Justice Department's claims that Welch and Johnson had tarnished the nation's prestige. Although no one has yet to find a statute that makes such a tarnish illegal, prosecutors felt a trial was necessary, anyway.
At the time, we urged federal prosecutors to let it go. Nothing good could come from a dogged pursuit of these charges. The only outcome would be a waste of taxpayer money. That became painfully evident as the prosecution's case began unraveling during the trial, and as witnesses that were thought to bolster the case instead testified that no crime had been committed. Right up to the end, prosecutors kept repeating the hollow line that "Olympic corruption must be stopped."
Welch and Johnson should have known better than to be so shameless in the way they approached the bid, but they ended up being the government's scapegoats. Plenty of evidence exists that previous Olympic organizers in Atlanta, Nagano and elsewhere engaged in similar tactics to lure the IOC. The IOC itself demanded as much. What happened here was nothing new, and Salt Lake City mostly likely never would have won the bid without playing along.
But after the negative publicity surrounding the scandal, the IOC has altered its procedures for awarding bids. While we still take a guarded approach toward any organization that operates completely without oversight, the IOC's actions, together with the media attention, have had an effect. We suspect no bid committee with any degree of sense would entertain the thought of offering a bribe today in exchange for a vote.
Friday's ruling ensures that the 2002 Games will remain a bright memory that forever will be a positive part of Utah's, and the nation's, history. The scandal, at last, is dead and buried.