The case of corruption in the city of Bell is that rare story in journalism that actually ends like an episode of “Law & Order.”

The bad guys wound up in handcuffs, justice prevailed and … wait a sec. What ever happened to Randy Adams?

Bell's former police chief earned an astonishing $457,000 a year, and seems to have gone to some trouble to conceal that fact. (Of course, that made him only the second-highest paid person in the city, behind this guy.) Plus, there was his pre-approved disability pension. So: surely he's been locked up by now?

Turns out, no. And as the L.A. Times reports, even the judge in the case is wondering why.

Could it have anything to do with the fact that Adams ran in the same law enforcement circles as D.A. Steve Cooley?

Cooley has said that he knew Adams professionally, but did not socialize with him. He has resisted calls to turn the case over to the Attorney General.

The prosecutor handling the case, Max Huntsman, told the Times that Adams' conduct may look bad, but they have some secret evidence that would make it hard to get a conviction.

“If you just look at the transcript of the indictment, it sure looks like, gosh, we could have indicted Randy Adams,” he said. “The answer is we know more than that, and we're not sure we'd win at trial.”

Who knows what that secret exculpatory evidence might be, but perhaps it's contained in Adams' account of the affair, a 1 1/2-page document entitled “The Police Chief's Side of the Story on Bell.”

How about giving the Attorney General a look at it?

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