Expensive, taxpayer-paid chauffeurs for Fox Sports

A lawyer for the U.S. Marshals Service named Joseph Band has rightly been smacked down by the findings of an investigation by the Justice Department's Inspector General.

Mr. Band, who also works part-time as a statistician for Fox Sports, leaned on his day employer to provide escorts for himself as well as Fox broadcasters during the 2007 national championship college football game in Arizona, the 2007 World Series and the 2008 Super Bowl. No less than three U.S. Marshals (Yvonne Bonner (Acting) in Massachusetts, Thomas Hurlburt in Tampa and David Gonzales in Phoenix) agreed to help, and provided deputy U.S. Marshals in government vehicles to provide transportation and escorts during those events, even though obviously none qualified as official Marshals Service business. Those escorts used emergency lights to speed the broadcasters through traffic both before and after the events cited. In exchange, at least at the World Series event, Mr. Band provided passes to the games for the personnel involved.

Thankfully, the report finds at least one U.S. Marshal who told Band what he could do with his perk requests when the marshal was asked to provide free rides to a baseball All-Star game in San Francisco:

"U.S. Marshal Federico Rocha declined to provide any assistance in response to Band's request and instead told Band he could take a taxi or trolley to the ballpark. Rocha advised his staff that Band could not be transported in a USMS vehicle while conducting personal business."

Thank you for your integrity, Marshal Rocha. It's admired and appreciated.

In the investigation, Mr. Band was also found to be less than forthcoming about his involvement in the assignments:

"he lacked candor when we interviewed him about these instances"

Lied, in other words. That's not real good when you work in the Office of General Counsel and are supposed to be making and enforcing ethical policies, not breaking them, as one poor hoodwinked deputy marshal pointed out:

"[The deputy] said that because Band was with the USMS OGC, 'and who was the guy who advises us on ethics' he concluded there was no problem with doing as Band asked."

He concluded wrongly, of course. The report ultimately found that Band and the U.S. Marshals who provided the deputies and transportation "misused government resources and violated USMS ethical rules".

Obviously. I wonder what other whacked-out "ethical rules" the Service is operating under, thanks to this boob Band.

The Inspector General's Office reported their findings to two U.S. Attorneys, in Boston and Virginia, both of whom apparently declined to prosecute Band or any of the U.S. Marshals involved (for theft, we'd imagine).

We'll follow up to see if any of these individuals save Marshal Rocha are still employed with the Marshals Service, and if so, why. As for Rocha, we recommend that he be promoted immediately, as he shows admirable ethical standards both for himself and his local office. It sounds like the Marshals could badly use a person like him as their head honcho, in order to weed out the numerous bad apples that apparently work there.