[Updated - twice - with very important info and bumped to the top because I felt like it.]

How much more can the case against Dawn DeFraties and Michael Casey possibly fall apart? Every major witness has folded under cross-examination…

[Mark] Dawson earlier testified [for the state] about more than two dozen applications. He indicated in writing on some that he had been instructed by DeFraties or Casey to grade them and put them directly on the electronic statewide system ahead of others _ giving them a better and quicker chance at the state payroll.

But under cross-examination Monday by lawyer Carl Draper _ the attorney for the fired employees _ Dawson said he had never spoken to DeFraties or Casey about any so-called “special applications” and that it was inaccurate to put those notes on the applications. […]

Dawson said Monday that he knew through his immediate supervisor, Cynthia Dixon, that the applications had come from Room 503 in Springfield’s Stratton Office Building _ DeFraties’ and Casey’s office _ and that such applications should be graded first.

But he said neither DeFraties nor Casey told him to grade them differently. In fact, he said he graded them the same way as any other application that came in through the mail and that no rules or law stipulate in what order applications are evaluated. […]

Dawson, however, then acknowledged that Dixon’s concerns merely were to ensure that applicants’ experience and education was evaluated fairly and uniformly.

If the state has some secret Ace up its sleeve it better play that card soon because right now this is looking like a total frame job to me.

DeFraties was advised by more than one acquaintance of mine before she ever took the CMS personnel chief job that she better keep a complete and comprehensive paper trail of everything she did because if something went wrong they’d toss her over the side. She did, it did, they did. And now her lawyer knows as much or more than the state does about its own case.

*** UPDATE *** Oh, for crying out loud…

Later, an investigator for the state’s Office of the Executive Inspector General acknowledged that his case against DeFraties and Casey for allegedly manipulating state hiring rules was built on witness statements of “graders” such as Dawson that he never independently verified.

“I was relying upon the testimony and the interviews of the graders,” Richard Lantz said. “I believe the graders were telling the truth.” […]

Lantz, the inspector general’s investigator, said he did not research state hiring rules or interview CMS lawyers or other experts on how hiring is supposed to work. He said he didn’t check the accuracy of a log of applicants Casey allegedly kept, didn’t pursue whether the son of a Blagojevich aide was hired properly, and never looked into whether any false information was submitted on applications.

“That was something other than what our investigation was inquiring about,” Lantz said.

This is our vaunted Inspector General’s office? Their investigations look about as professional as their ethics exams. [Hat tip to a commenter.]

*** UPDATE 2 *** Yet another prosecution witness bites the dust…

A witness in the case of two Illinois state workers fired for allegedly tinkering with the job application process said today some applications were handled differently because of tradition — not because of pressure. […]

[CMS job-evaluation supervisor Cynthia Dixon] said applications that came from DeFraties’ office from 2003 to 2005 were evaluated ahead of others.

But — under cross-examination — she said that process had gone on for years.
She said the process continued because it always had been done that way. She said DeFraties did not instruct her on handling them.

Could the state’s case really be this horribly pathetic? Sure looks that way. [Emphasis added]