In the Pershing Park case, it pays to be the scapegoat. The Examiner‘s Bill Myers reported today that Tom Koger was awarded a $2,600 bonus in October. Koger was the Office of the Attorney General lawyer charged with handling the Pershing Park cases. This past August, AG Peter Nickles took Koger off two class-action cases, and had blamed the veteran lawyer for the infamous discovery abuses.

In Nickles’ sworn affidavit submitted in August, the AG wrote: “The discovery lapses at issues (sic) here are inexcusable and should not have occurred. Even my preliminary investigation discloses that OAG personnel responsible for discovery made serious errors in managing and producing documents in these cases.”

Nickles then called out Koger:

“As such, the responsibility for the errors here falls on him. He, and those he supervised, misplaced documents and, because they were not indexed upon receipt, lost track of them. Ths, the documents were not timely produced….I state unequivocally that significant, remedial actions will be taken to address these issues and to prevent their reoccurrence, including proper disciplinary action. I also can state that promptly upon discovery and review of the belated discovered documents, they have been and will continue to be produced to plaintiffs.”

Yet, Koger still received his bonus.

According to the Examiner’s records, Koger was paid out an additional $3,000 between 2007 and his October payout. Those bonuses came during the time of the discovery abuses.