$25,000? Where'd that come from?

I'm reading an opinion in which the Virginia Supreme Court granted a Writ of Actual Innocence in a child molestation case. One of the victims's recantations includes this stastement:

Finally, A.H. said that he discovered that Elaine [victim's mother] had received $25,000 from the prosecutor’s son.

Huh?

The implication is obvious, but it leads me to two questions. (1) Where are they paying prosecutors enough money that they can clandestinely funnel money to random cases? Are they hiring? This case was in the mid-nineties and (sadly) that $25,000 would be the equivilent of $50,000+ today. I couldn't afford that and I suspect my boss couldn't either. I doubt we could scare up that kind of money if we hit up every attorney in the office.

(2) Why? I like to win cases as much as the next guy, but there's no way I would trust that sort of thing to remain a secret and my career is worth more than negative $50,000.