Sentencing/Post Conviction

At 480 Pounds, Inmate Says He Is Too Fat for Lethal Injection

An Ohio inmate who weighs 480 pounds says he should not be subjected to lethal injection because his death could be “torturous and lingering.” Ronald Post is scheduled to die in January for killing a hotel clerk in 1983, the Associated Press reports. He says in court documents filed Friday…

Sep 18, 2012 2:51 PM CDT

Closing Lawyer Gets 7 Years in $431K Mortgage Fraud; His Counsel Says He Earned Only His Legal Fee

A 46-year-old New Jersey real estate lawyer has been sentenced to a seven-year prison term and ordered to pay a $150,000 fine and $42,404 restitution for his role in a multidefendant mortgage fraud case. Paul DiGiacomo pleaded guilty in May in Morristown Superior Court to second-degree money-laundering of stolen funds…

Sep 17, 2012 10:04 PM CDT

Ex-Lawyer Steven Lippman Gets 3 Years, Says Ex-Partner Scott Rothstein ‘Played Me Like a Fool’

A newly disbarred South Florida lawyer was sentenced Friday to three years in federal prison, in the latest fallout from the implosion of the Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler law firm operated by convicted Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein, who is also disbarred and serving a 50-year federal prison term. Although Steven Lippman,…

Sep 14, 2012 6:19 PM CDT

Attorney Gives Up License After Conviction In Law Office Arson Case

An attorney has voluntarily given up her West Virginia license after being convicted of arson concerning a small fire at the law firm at which she then worked. Ashley R. Shreve, 30, was sentenced earlier this year to five years of probation, with conditions, concerning a box of files set…

Sep 14, 2012 5:36 PM CDT

Top Oregon Court Asked to Rule: Must Soldier Choose Between Violating Army Order or Probation?

Correction: On probation for two misdemeanor sex offenses, a Oregon man who is a member of the Army Reserve is currently facing a tough choice: Ordered by the U.S. Army to deploy to Afghanistan, Derrick James McDonald, 22, will be in serious trouble if he fails to do so. But…

Sep 13, 2012 10:47 PM CDT

Former Jenkens & Gilchrist Partner Takes Plea in Tax Shelter Opinions Case; Will Forfeit $1.6M

A former partner of Jenkens & Gilchrist pleaded guilty to conspiracy and tax evasion Thursday in federal court in Manhattan concerning a decade-long tax-shelter scheme that the trial judge says is the biggest American tax-fraud case ever. Donna Guerin, 52, agreed to forfeit $1.6 million and could face a maximum…

Sep 13, 2012 9:57 PM CDT

Former Texas Judge Agrees to Pay $250K Restitution in School Health Care Fraud Case

Sentenced last month to 63 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to a fraud involving the Ysleta Independent School District while he working for a health care provider, a former Texas judge has now agreed to pay $250,000 restitution. Luther Jones, 66, who once sat on the bench in…

Sep 13, 2012 2:51 PM CDT

Man Convicted in Mexico-US Pot Smuggling Scheme That Ensnared Innocent Drivers Gets 20 Years

A Texas man allegedly involved in a cross-border marijuana-smuggling scheme that resulted in Mexican criminal charges against several upstanding drivers whose vehicles were used without their knowledge to smuggle the pot has been sentenced to a 20-year prison term. Jesus Chavez, 38, also must pay $140,000 in restitution to his…

Sep 12, 2012 6:02 PM CDT

Retrial Begins for Inmate Who Argued His Sentence Was 25 Years Too Short

An Illinois man who argued his murder sentence was too short in a gambit to withdraw his guilty plea is being retried this week. Brian Pinkas received a 20-year sentence for the murder of his girlfriend when he pleaded guilty in 2005, report the Belleville News-Democrat and the St. Louis…

Sep 11, 2012 6:14 PM CDT

Ex-Banker Birkenfeld Gets $104M for UBS Case Cooperation; May Be Biggest US Whistleblower Award

Sentenced to a 40-month federal prison term in 2009 for his role in a tax evasion conspiracy involving offshore American accounts, former Swiss banker Bradley Birkenfeld elicited sympathetic comments from some observers who said the hefty sentence was likely to discourage other whistleblowers from cooperating with the government. But the…

Sep 11, 2012 4:22 PM CDT

One Former Okla. Judge Resigns From Bar, Another Is Suspended From Practice for a Year

The resignation of a former Oklahoma judge from not only her job on the bench but the state bar association has been accepted by the state’s top court. Oklahoma County District Judge Tammy Bass-LeSure stepped down and gave up her bar membership after pleading guilty in March to two counts…

Sep 10, 2012 10:11 PM CDT

Former Office Manager Gets 10 Years for Embezzling More Than $500K from Suburban Chicago Law Firm

A woman who stole more than $500,000 over a four-year period while working for a suburban Chicago law firm has been sentenced to a 10-year prison term by a DuPage County judge. Mary Marra, 44, has repaid more than $150,000 of what she embezzled from the law firm, the Downers…

Sep 10, 2012 8:26 PM CDT

Lawyer Who Tried to Bribe Cop with Personal Check Had Impaired Judgment, Is Censured, Not Suspended

A New York lawyer apparently had a few too many when he went to lunch with friends one day, then hit a telephone pole as he attempted to drive home. After being arrested and taken to a police station, he tried to bribe a cop with a $2,000 personal check,…

Sep 5, 2012 7:46 PM CDT

Disbarred Lawyer Gets 5 Years in Federal Prison for Embezzling $1M From Elderly Clients

A lawyer for Louis M. Smith said his Parkinson’s disease is at least in part responsible for the now-disbarred Kentucky lawyer’s alleged embezzlement of over $1 million from two elderly women from his church and sought a sentence of home detention for his ailing 63-year-old client. But a federal prosecutor…

Sep 5, 2012 4:50 PM CDT