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"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."

                                                 -Abraham Lincoln 


I was left dumbfounded the other day when I stumbled up on that nearly 150 year old quote, so simple yet so true.  Hard times?  You'll more than likely get through it.  Broken heart?  You'll get over it.  But give a man a little power and see how he handles himself, that's the true test of a man's character.  Honest Abe was right on the money.  Throughout the last year or so we've seen several instances where people with some degree of "power" have behaved in a less than honorable fashion, from a dishonest cop to a morally and ethically bankrupt prosecutor.


I don't think we need to rehash all of Detective Baluja's misdeeds, but I do think that it's worth noting some of Assistant State Attorney Bill Kostrzewski's.  From abusing his charging powers as a prosecutor by bringing charges against defendants he knew were innocent to threatening innocent family members of people he charged in the Bernardo Barrera mortgage fraud case with new criminal charges in order to get them to turn against each other.  How perverse is that?  For those of you wondering what I'm talking about, I'll give you a hint.  How about something as simple as lying about his health to get out of a deposition?  Or worse, what about the highly unethical things that Mr. Kostrzewski has done behind the scenes that we weren't supposed to find out about?  Thanks to some of our readers we know quite a bit about things that Mr. Kostrzewski never dreamed of us learning about.  I have to wonder if Mr. Kostrzewski's superiors at the state attorneys office are aware of his indiscretions?  More importantly though, what have Mr. Kostrzewski's actions throughout the Barrera mortgage fraud case told us about his character?