The federal government yesterday filed a motion requesting that the retrial of former Allegheny County Coroner Dr. Cyril H. Wecht be moved to Erie.

In a 42-page brief, Assistant U.S. Attorney James R. Wilson said extensive media coverage of the case would make it impossible for the government to get a fair trial in Pittsburgh.

Mr. Wilson argued to U.S. District Judge Sean J. McLaughlin that much of the publicity surrounding the case was critical of the government and its decision to retry Dr. Wecht. He said that despite the inconvenience and expense to both parties of moving the trial, it was the only way to find an unbiased, untainted jury.

Dr. Wecht's defense attorney, Jerry McDevitt, who is opposed to moving the case, called it "the strangest motion I've ever seen."

"You wonder, reading their own motion, why they don't drop the case," he said, noting that the prosecution spent a lot of time in the brief highlighting all of the public figures and news organizations that have said there should be no retrial.

Dr. Wecht's first trial ended in a hung jury in April after 10 weeks. The government announced immediately that it would seek a retrial.

The defense filed an appeal with the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals arguing that a retrial would be unconstitutional double jeopardy. The 3rd Circuit refused that argument but a panel of judges did remove U.S. District Judge Arthur J. Schwab from the case, saying all parties would benefit from less acrimony in the courtroom.

After the assignment of Judge McLaughlin to the case, the U.S. attorney's office dropped 27 of 41 counts against Dr. Wecht.

At the same hearing where the government announced it would dismiss the charges, it said it planned to file a motion for change of venue because of extensive media coverage.

Calling it an "unprecedented level of media scrutiny and reporting" in his brief, Mr. Wilson did a breakdown of the number of stories on the Wecht case since the indictment in January 2006.

That year, he said, there were at least 170 separate media reports. In 2007, Mr. Wilson continued, there were at least 146.

This year, there have been at least 554 media accounts.

"The public interest seems not to have abated," Mr. Wilson wrote.

He called the idea of even trying to seat a jury from Pittsburgh "a crucial waste of judicial time and resources."

Mr. McDevitt said that it would cost Dr. Wecht hundreds of thousands of dollars to try the case in Erie. He cited expenses like hotel rooms and meals for the team of defense lawyers, and office space and computer equipment.

This week, the defense filed a motion asking that Judge McLaughlin throw the case out -- or at least suppress some of the evidence previously admitted -- arguing that Judge Schwab erred in his decision-making.

There is no word when Judge McLaughlin might rule on that.