David Radler wound up getting his plea bargain deal rubber-stamped.

Here's the globeandmail.com and CTV.ca stories (the latter with video).

There was some speculation that because Radler was seen at the time as a spectacularly bad witness, the prosecution might break the deal.

Here is what juror Monica Prince told the Toronto Star in a story published July 15:

Radler, who pleaded guilty to fraud in exchange for his co-operation, was supposed to be the prosecution's star witness but, by the final rebuttal, the prosecutors had distanced themselves from him.

"Radler, he was a farce," Prince said. "Radler sounded stupid on that stand, he kept contradicting himself. I said, 'he's playing us.' For (Black and Radler) to run a business for so long, and you're talking to someone intelligent like Conrad Black, you're not going to come off silly like that."

His testimony played little if any role in their decision, she added.

Let us recall this snippet from prosecutor Eric Sussman, as recorded in a June 26 CTV.ca story:

... Sussman told jurors Tuesday at the trial in Chicago that they "do not need to believe a word David Radler told you to convict every single one of these defendants."

How's that for distancing? :)

However, Black was convicted on four minor charges (and acquitted on nine), so I guess that made Mr. Fitzgerald and company forgive and forget.

Still, it would be interesting to have a parallel universe for test purposes to see if Radler would have still gotten a 29-month sentence had Conrad Black and company walked.

See this Dec. 10 post for my analysis of how Black's and Radler's sentences compare.

Addendum

The Globe and Mail had this snippet in its Tuesday story:

Legal experts say that by negotiating a 29-month jail sentence, Mr. Radler effectively tied the judge's hands when it came to sentencing everyone in the criminal case.

"These other defendants, in a weird way, owe a lot to David Radler for setting the bar so low," said Hugh Totten, a Chicago lawyer who has followed the case and attended yesterday's hearing.