Agriculture Commissioner Bob Odom's pine trees must be getting tall by now.
They were mere seedlings when he removed them from his department's stock and planted them at his farm in 1997. Numbering in the thousands, they were probably coming on quite nicely by the time he was indicted in 2002.
They will constitute a towering stand before he ever comes to trial. Proceedings in state court were aborted Monday for the umpteenth time, and it seems less and less likely that he will ever be held to account for larcenous silviculture or the other crimes of which he was Odom did finally pay his department for the seedlings, but only after a Legislative Auditor's investigation in 2001. That is not how honest men generally handle their bills, and thieves are not entitled to exoneration just because they return the loot after getting caught.
But the law requires prosecutors to prove that Odom intended to deprive the state of its property permanently, and that will not be easy to do when he can produce an invoice and a cancelled check, even if there is four years between them. Odom has said he was guilty only of an "oversight."
He was due to go on trial Monday charged, in addition to the seedling rap, with public bribery and money laundering. Odom was accused of money laundering and attempted money laundering, because his grandchildren's day care was paid for by a church to which he lent $300,000 from his campaign fund and then forgave part of the interest.
But all those transactions were conducted by check, and money laundering requires cash, judge Donald Johnson ruled. Prosecutors argued that could not have been the Legislature's intention.
The best way to resolve such disputes is often to read the statute. The Louisiana money-laundering law applies to coin or paper money, silver certificates, Treasury notes, Federal Reserve notes and foreign bank drafts. No checks.
Johnson dismissed the money-laundering counts, gave prosecutors leave to appeal and proposed to proceed with a trial on the other counts. When prosecutors balked, and suggested Johnson had exceeded his authority, he threw out the entire case, leaving a mass of confusion to be resolved by the higher courts. It would take a brave man to predict whether Odom will ever stand trial.
If he is not convicted, taxpayers will pick up Odom's legal bills, $400,000 at last report but certain to go much higher. We haven't had our money's worth so far.
This is not the first time Johnson has decided to let Odom off the hook. He ruled in 2005 that prosecutors had blown the deadline for bringing Odom to trial, but the state Supreme Court overruled him a year later.
It would be fair to deduce that prosecutors and Johnson do not operate in mutual admiration. Indeed, prosecutors tried to get Johnson kicked off the case, but the state Supreme Court ruled against them.
The ink was hardly dry on the indictment before prosecutors dismissed 11 of the 21 counts, and Johnson followed up by throwing out several more, so the case was pretty much in tatters years before Monday's fiasco.
Odom is 71 and could become the third septuagenarian Louisiana politician behind bars. But former Gov. Edwin Edwards and former state Senate President Michael O'Keefe were nailed by the feds, who tend to be more formidable adversaries than the East Baton Rouge District Attorney's Office.
While Edwards and O'Keefe are pining away, Odom may end up watching the pines grow.
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