Ex-Ohio Rep. Ney sentenced to 30 months - sentence was harsher than rec. by prosecutors

[Kadie]

Ex-Ohio Rep. Ney sentenced to 30 months
By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer
2 minutes ago


WASHINGTON - Former Rep. Bob Ney was sentenced Friday to 30 months in federal prison for his role in a congressional bribery scandal.

Ney, the first congressman ensnared in the case, pleaded guilty to trading official favors for golf trips, tickets, meals and campaign donations from disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle said that Ney would serve his time at a federal prison in Morgantown, West Virginia.

When he is released, the judge said, Ney will serve another two years on probation and pay a $6,000 fine. She also ordered him into a prison alcohol rehabilitation program for treatment of a drinking problem he has acknowledged in recent months.

The sentence was harsher than recommended by prosecutors or Ney's lawyers, Huvelle said, because Ney had violated the trust place on him as a public official. "Both your constituents and the public trusted you to represent them honestly," she said

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070119/ap_on_go_co/ney_corruption_6

[mod mom]

1. Anyone know if the is a Club Fed Prison?

[bpj1962]

9. Minimum Security Prison

If memory serves me correct this is the male counterpart to the prison that Martha Stewart spent time in. It is not a country club prison. He will be assigned to a prison work detail like every other prisoner. The primary difference between Maximum and Minimum security is that most of the inmate are non-violent offenders. It will not be a picnic. The guards are not pleasant. I am so glad that the judge threw the book at him and she ignored his attorneys plea for leniency yet she still ordered him to attend AA meeting in prison.

[mod mom]

12. :(. I so wanted Bubba to be on his new inmate greeting committee.

[dogday]

2. Looks like he will have to do a mandatory 2 years in prison

that is 80% of his sentance of 30 months....

[WiseButAngrySara]

3. Harsher than recommended? Oh please! ....n/t

[Kadie]

6. LOL - Ney's dr. wrote that Ney's behavior had been influenced by an increase in alcohol

Well, that is what the story says. LOL I wonder what they recommended.

then there is this...

snip...
Earlier, Ney's defense team filed letters from his doctor and a former staff member who described his drinking problems and how they accelerated when he came under scrutiny in the Abramoff lobbying scandal.

Dr. Renato F. Dela Cruz, the congressman's physician, wrote that Ney's behavior had been influenced by an increase in alcohol consumption that began in 2001. Cruz said he urged the lawmaker to cut back, but the recommendation was ignored.

Parker, a former aide and friend, said Ney "was a functioning alcoholic who could rarely make it through the day without drinking and would often begin drinking beers as early as 7:30 a.m."

[yardwork]

10. Normally, being a drunk would be a point against the defendant

I can't believe the hypocrisy of the Republicans - they have no sympathy for people with alcohol, drug, or medical issues until they themselves get in trouble. Then the excuses fly.

[BR_Parkway]

14. So the drinking problem became a problem when he was getting

investigated? So the judge is supposed to cut him some slack over this? What a pitiful, whiny assed thing to offer up.

[WiseButAngrySara]

17. Hey, I love alcohol! Quit blaming the bubbly! This refrain is

becoming all too predictable. Foley, pedophile ...and who else recently? Ridiculous!

[sinkingfeeling]

4. I read earlier that Ney's lawyer was seeking 24 months instead of the

27 months recommended.

[Kadie]

8. so he only got 3 months more than the prosecutors were recommending...

aww.....

[Botany]

5. Do I HAVA to feel bad for him?

Bob helped to game the system in 2002 with HAVA and
he knows it was used to steal 2004 for bush. I bet Bob
will stay real quite about what he knows and take his "hush
money" after he gets out.



I wonder if he can take his head squirrel w/ him?

[peekaloo]

11. head squirrel

:rofl:

I believe it gets checked at the gate.

[malaise]

7. Adios

may you meet your match in prison.

[mod mom]

13. Ney as Architect of HAVA helped put * in place (RFK Jr):

Fresh disasters at the polls -- and new evidence from an industry insider -- prove that electronic voting machines can't be trusted

ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.



The primary author and steward of HAVA was Rep. Bob Ney, the GOP chairman of the powerful U.S. House Administration Committee. Ney had close ties to the now-disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, whose firm received at least $275,000 from Diebold to lobby for its touch-screen machines. Ney's former chief of staff, David DiStefano, also worked as a registered lobbyist for Diebold, receiving at least $180,000 from the firm to lobby for HAVA and "other election reform issues." Ney - who accepted campaign contributions from DiStefano and counted Diebold's then-CEO O'Dell among his constituents - made sure that HAVA strongly favored the use of the company's machines.

Ney also made sure that Diebold and other companies would not be required to equip their machines with printers to provide paper records that could be verified by voters. In a clever twist, HAVA effectively pressures every precinct to provide at least one voting device that has no paper trail - supposedly so that vision-impaired citizens can vote in secrecy. The provision was backed by two little-known advocacy groups: the National Federation of the Blind, which accepted $1 million from Diebold to build a new research institute, and the American Association of People with Disabilities, which pocketed at least $26,000 from voting-machine companies. The NFB maintained that a paper voting receipt would jeopardize its members' civil rights - a position not shared by other groups that advocate for the blind.

Sinking in the sewage of the Abramoff scandal, Ney agreed on September 15th to plead guilty to federal conspiracy charges - but he has already done one last favor for his friends at Diebold. When 212 congressmen from both parties sponsored a bill to mandate a paper trail for all votes, Ney used his position as chairman to prevent the measure from even getting a hearing before his committee.

The result was that HAVA - the chief reform effort after the 2000 disaster - placed much of the nation's electoral system in the hands of for-profit companies. Diebold alone has sold more than 130,000 voting machines - raking in estimated revenues of at least $230 million. "This wh
-snip
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/11717105/robert_f_kennedy_jr__will_the_next_election_be_hacked/4

[acmejack]

15. Boy, that's really throwing the book at him.

PLease! Selling the US Government-30 months. Selling pot-20 years. Bullshit!

[LTR]

16. Do they serve "Freedom Fries" there?

Appropriate punishment would be a meal of:

French fries w/ French's mustard
French bread
French toast
French wine
and a main course of escargot.