This article is from the source 'washpo' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/crime/mcdonnell-attorneys-will-seek-public-service-for-former-va-governor/2014/12/23/7fc8ffb2-8aa8-11e4-8ff4-fb93129c9c8b_story.html?wprss=rss_homepage

The article has changed 5 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
McDonnell’s attorneys will seek public service for former Va. governor McDonnell’s attorneys will seek public service for former Va. governor
(about 5 hours later)
Defense attorneys for Robert F. McDonnell will propose later Tuesday that the convicted former Virginia governor work the equivalent of two to three years of community service — or about 5,000 to 6,000 hours — instead of serving any jail time for his public corruption convictions, according to people familiar with the case. Defense attorneys for former Virginia Governor Robert F. McDonnell asked a judge in a court filing on Tuesday to sentence the disgraced ex-politico to work 6,000 hours of community service instead of serving any prison time for his public corruption convictions.
The proposal, first reported by the Richmond Times Dispatch, will come as defense attorneys file their sentencing memorandum in the case, a document that lays out what they believe is a fair penalty for the former governor and why. Attached to the memorandum will be a bevy of letters, many of which lay out specific community services venues where McDonnell might work. The court filing in federal district court in Richmond — the substance of which was first reported by the Richmond Times Dispatch — is a long shot request, to say the least. The U.S. probation office, whose calculation goes a long way to shaping sentences in the federal system, has recommended McDonnell spend somewhere between 10 years and a month and 12 years and seven months behind bars.
McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, were convicted in September of public corruption for lending the prestige of the governor’s office to Richmond businessman Jonnie R. Williams Sr. in exchange for $177,000 in loans, vacations and luxury goods. The U.S. probation office has recommended McDonnell spend somewhere between 10 years and a month and 12 years and seven months in federal prison, and experts say it is likely U.S. District Judge James R. Spencer will impose a penalty within that range. But McDonnell’s defense team urged U.S. District Judge James R. Spencer to reject that calculation as “patently unfair,” arguing that no public official had been convicted for similar conduct and what McDonnell did was a a “total aberration in what was by all accounts a successful and honorable career.”
McDonnell’s defense attorneys believe, though, that the probation office should have recommended a penalty between two years and nine months and three years and five months, according to people familiar with the case. And they will ask Spencer to hand down a sentence even lighter than that at McDonnell’s Jan. 6 sentencing, the people said. “[A] variant sentence of probation with full-time, rigorous community service of 6,000 hours best serves the goals of justice, fairness, and mercy in this case,” defense attorneys wrote.
The people spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly discuss a court filing that was not yet public. As of about 2:30 p.m., prosecutors had yet to make their own sentencing recommendation to Spencer, though they are expected to do so later Tuesday and ask for a term within the probation office’s recommended range.
Among the organizations where defense attorneys will propose McDonnell should volunteer are Operation Blessing, a humanitarian organization based in Virginia Beach; the Promise Development Corp. in Tennessee; and the Catholic Diocese of Richmond, according to people familiar with the case. One proposal would have the former governor working overseas in Haiti, the people said. McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, were convicted in September of public corruption for lending the prestige of the governor’s office to Richmond businessman Jonnie R. Williams Sr. in exchange for $177,000 in loans, vacations and luxury goods. The former governor is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 5, and his wife is scheduled to be sentenced on February 20.
Those who have written letters on McDonnell’s behalf, in many cases, are officials who could arrange the work for McDonnell; one, for example, is Bill Horan, Operation Blessing’s president, the people said. The probation office has not yet made a recommendation in Maureen McDonnell’s case, and prosecutors and defense attorneys are not required to take formal positions on the matter until next month.
The former governor would not be paid for his work, the people said. Jacob Frenkel, a former federal prosecutor who now does white collar criminal defense work, said Spencer is highly unlikely to sentence McDonnell to only a few years of community service, but is unsurprising that his attorneys would request such a penalty. Frenkel said that at a minimum, Spencer will want his sentence to steer other politicians away from public corruption, and a term of mere probation would probably not send the message he intends.
Maureen McDonnell is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 20, and the probation office has not yet recommended a range for her, nor have prosecutors and defense attorneys begun to argue over what that range might be. “At the end of the football game, the quarterback will always throw the Hail Mary with the hope that it will be caught in the end zone,” Frenkel said. “Is it realistic? ... Not really, because, again, one of the fundamental criteria for a sentencing judge is the deterrent effect of the sentence.”
According to people familiar with the case, McDonnell’s defense attorneys believe the probation office should have recommended the former governor face a guideline sentencing range of two years and nine months to three years and five months. Their filing Tuesday, though, asked Spencer to go below that and impose no actual time behind bars.
In the filing, McDonnell’s defense attorneys proposed a number of specific organizations for which the former governor could work — free of charge — if the judge were to sentence him to community service. Among them are Operation Blessing International, a humanitarian organization based in Virginia Beach and the Catholic Diocese of Richmond.
Frenkel said that is important because the governor’s best chance for success is to show the court a concrete plan that could serve as a substitute for prison.
“So rather than simply say, ‘put him on probation and give him community service,’ they are trying to line up a very methodical, organized plan to serve as an alternative to incarceration,” Frenkel said.
Notably, the organizations and their leaders bear personal and professional connections to McDonnell, and some might view a sentence that sent him to work for them as hardly a sentence at all.
Operation Blessing, for example, was founded by Virginia Beach televangelist Pat Robertson, and he continues to sit on the organization’s board of directors. The controversial religious leader has been a longtime friend and political ally of McDonnell. McDonnell received a graduate degree from what is now called Regent University, the Christian-based college founded by Robertson.
Robertson also donated more than $100,000 to McDonnell’s political campaigns and attended his 2010 inauguration as governor. On his program in August, Robertson accused the Department of Justice of pursuing a political prosecution of McDonnell, claiming Attorney General Eric Holder was “behind all this stuff.”
“It’s one more reason why this administration is just destroying this nation and destroying its own credibility,” Robertson said.
Frenkel said that while he does not expect a sentence of only community service, he also doubts Spencer will impose a sentence of more than a decade. Such a term could be painful for McDonnell in more ways than one.
Federal bureau of prison procedures call for any male inmate with more than a decade left on his sentence to serve time in a low security prison — as opposed to a minimum security facility — unless a specific waiver is given. Minimum security prisons come with limited or no fencing, fewer guards and dormitory housing. Low security prisons come with double fenced perimeters and many more guards.