Posted on 07/30/2002 9:44:34 AM PDT by Lunatic Fringe
Negative. It's even worse. Her husband works for the firm run by one of the main witness, J.J. Cafaro (sp?).
No, but it might make things a little better. And Traficant can go and compound cars, or do whatever else that idiotic thing on his head could be used for.
Warning: Excessive use of sarcasm on this Forum may result in confused Newbies...RightWingGood...LeftWingBad...MUD
If the evidence is as flimsy as you Trafficant lovers say, then a real lawyer could have gotten him off.
Geez, dude, you have issues you need to work out.
I’ll give you a hundred dollars if you can find any quote by me that says the evidence is flimsy or that I love (or even like) Trafficant.
Don’t spout off at people when you obviously know nothing about them. It makes you look like a weirdo.
Heck, sentencing guidelines are taught in undergrad pre-law classes. Such a boneheaded "error" will by law need to be addressed on appeal and looks to be either intentionally vexatious or intentionally charitable - I don't know which.
URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2002/07/30/national1300EDT0610.DTL
(07-30) 10:00 PDT (AP) --
U.S. District Judge Lesley Wells gave Traficant a longer sentence than prosecutors had asked for, saying he had no respect for the government and that he used lies to distract attention from the charges against him. Prosecutors had urged a sentence of at least 7\ years.
She said he abused the public's trust, reduced public confidence in government, obstructed justice and took a leadership role in recruiting people to further his scheme.
She also told Traficant, 61, that he believes he is above the law.
"You've done a lot of good in your years in Congress ... the good you have done does not excuse you of the crime you were convicted of," she told him.
Traficant accused Wells of aiding the prosecution and complained that he wasn't allowed to argue during the trial that the government has a vendetta against him.
"Why did you tie my hands behind my back?" he asked Wells as she sentenced him. Wells then ordered him to sit down.
Earlier in the day, she had rejected his argument that he should not be sanctioned because he has already been punished by expulsion from the House. Traficant had argued that a prison sentence would amount to double jeopardy or being punished twice for the same crime.
Wells agreed with federal prosecutors, who had argued in a motion that Traficant's expulsion "was not criminal punishment. The action was inherently political and nonjudicial in nature." Besides, they argued, if such a motion were upheld, no expelled member of Congress could ever be tried.
Earlier, Traficant was mostly quiet during the hearing until he abruptly stood up and told Wells he wanted to dismiss the attorney he hired to represent him at the sentencing.
^`Take your, 7th graf, a0591
©2002 Associated Press
Or killed someone and got off Scott free and remained a mamber of Congress in "good standing". Teddy "The Besotted One" Kennedy did it.
I hope he appeals, but was under the impression that he wouldn't be allowed to.
Glad to see Trafficant has so many upbeat supporters. They all hate the government, they hate the Democrats, they hate the Republicans, they hate all the congress critters (they are all crooked), and they hate all lawyers but they LOVE the man. Sick. The guys a turd, let him rot.
Hmmm. So according to this judge, "having no respect for the govt" and "reducing public confidence in government" are grounds for the judge to add years to your sentence.
Boy, there's a LOT of Freepers who would be in trouble if they came before this judge!
Hate to break it to you, but Trafficant's seat is almostly entirely blue-coller and drawn as a "safe Democrat" seat. It hasn't elected a Republican in decades. The ONLY way a Republican wins that seat is if Trafficant and some stupid Dem managed to split the 'RAT vote 50-50.
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