Was the Operation Dollar Bill investigation worth it?

THe fact that 11% of respondents who are readers of PBN felt that the invesigation was not worth it because "the defendants were engaging in standard Rhode Island practice" is frightening.

Given the economic environment, spending millions on what turned out to be trumped up charges is a huge waste of taxpayer dollars, motivated more I suspect by political ambition than any sincere need to right a wrong. I would agree that the structure of the RI legislature provides fertile ground for conflict, but this is a structural problem that must be corrected at it's root. Finding frivolous examples of alleged conflict and prosecuting them so vigorously does little to correct the problem and makes victims of some people who were merely doing their jobs according to the rules as they understood them.