Operation Slap Shot: One year later

The Associated Press takes a look at the status of the gambling case against former NHLer Rick Tocchet. It was one year ago today that the charges against Tocchet, New Jersey State Trooper James Harney and a third man, James Ulmer, were announced. Harney and Ulmer have both plead guilty and are cooperating with authorities in the case against Tocchet.

And though it's been a year since he was arrested, charges have yet to be filed against Tocchet in the case.

"Waiting a year suggests the evidence may not be as strong as they'd like," said George C. Thomas, a professor at the Rutgers University School of Law in Newark.

But Mike Pinsky, a prominent New Jersey defense lawyer, said it's not unusual for the state attorney general's office to take more than a year to comb through evidence between filing charges and seeking an indictment.

"With wiretap cases, I don't consider a year a long time for a state grand jury," Pinsky said. "After year and a half or two years, I'd wonder what's going on."