When it comes to sports, taxpayer dollars pay for plenty of things. When it comes to former Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez, nearly a half of a million dollars in public money funded the prosecution that resulted in his conviction for the murder of Odin Lloyd.
Via the Associated Press, prosecutors spent over $462,000 on overtime for state police ($360,462.30) and expenses for expert witnesses and travel ($101,834.64). That’s over and above the normal salaries paid to the many people who worked on the case — efforts that otherwise could have been devoted to other cases.