Not entirely convinced by this specific example - he lost the civil case by default because [people think] responding to discovery might reveal things that he doesn't want the criminal case to know about.
Deliberately incurring a fine in one case to try and avoid jail in another is a bit different than not being able to mount a defense.
Any prosecutor worth their salt will see this move and immediately move to ammend their discovery motion for whatever the civil trial would've asked for, too, for the exact reason you listed.
Not entirely convinced by this specific example - he lost the civil case by default because [people think] responding to discovery might reveal things that he doesn't want the criminal case to know about.
Deliberately incurring a fine in one case to try and avoid jail in another is a bit different than not being able to mount a defense.
Any prosecutor worth their salt will see this move and immediately move to ammend their discovery motion for whatever the civil trial would've asked for, too, for the exact reason you listed.