Perhaps we shouldn’t have been, but we were surprised with the news of a settlement in State’s Attorney Lou Bianchi’s civil lawsuit against the special prosecutors who indicted him.

Henry C. Tonigan has agreed to pay $157,500 to Bianchi, his secretary, and two state’s attorney investigators who Tonigan and colleague Thomas McQueen unsuccessfully prosecuted last year.

By unsuccessful, we mean Tonigan and McQueen didn’t earn a single conviction against four defendants, and many of the charges they filed were thrown out before the cases even went to trial.