Excessive?

The president said today that the sentence imposed on the Scooter was "extreme." I thought that I would find a case where the defendant received a prison sentence on facts that seem a little extreme and did the time. Here's such a case--one of thousands, I'm sure, on the books. From the opinion:

This is a criminal case in which a jury found the defendant guilty on both counts of a two-count indictment charging him with mail fraud, a violation of 18 U.S.C. s 1341, and with making false statements to receive federal employee compensation, a violation of 18 U.S.C. s 1920. Challenging the sufficiency of the evidence against him, the defendant contends on appeal that the district court erred in denying a motion for acquittal. We conclude that the evidence was sufficient to support the jury's verdict, and we shall affirm the conviction.

[snip]

The defendant, Phillip Moore, sustained a back injury in 1969 while employed by the U.S. Postal Service. By reason of this injury, Mr. Moore began receiving monthly disability benefits under the Federal Employees Compensation Act, 5 U.S.C. ss 8101, et. seq. The payments continued for some 30 years.

As a recipient of compensation under the act, Mr. Moore was required to complete a questionnaire every year for the Department of Labor. The questionnaire, known as "form 1032," elicited information which the Department told Mr. Moore would be used to decide whether he was entitled to continue receiving benefits or whether the benefits should be adjusted.

Part A of the questionnaire, captioned "Employment," contained instructions that could reasonably be read as calling for disclosure of both paid and unpaid employment. In addition to being told to report "employment for which you received a salary, wages, income, sales commissions, piecework, or payment of any kind," the respondent was instructed to report, among other things, all "involvement in business enterprises" and to report a "rate of pay" in this connection that was not dependent upon the receipt of any remuneration: "If you performed any duties in any business enterprise for which you were not paid," the instructions said, "you must show as rate of pay what it would have cost the employer or organization to hire someone to perform the work or duties you did...."

In each of the questionnaires that he filed with the Department of Labor annually between 1995 and 2000, Mr. Moore reported in response to separate questions that he had not worked for any employer during the past 15 months and had not been "involved in any business enterprise" during the reporting period. The "rate of pay" lines for both questions were left blank.

An investigation by postal inspectors led to the discovery of evidence that Mr. Moore had in fact been actively involved in a restaurant and banquet facility operation conducted by an Elks lodge of which he was a trustee. Although it was not shown at trial that Mr. Moore was paid for the work he did, the evidence did indicate that he functioned as "acting manager" of the operation and performed a variety of duties that included supervising restaurant personnel and arranging banquet hall rentals. Operation of a restaurant business is one of the examples of "involvement in business enterprises" given in the form 1032 instructions.

The district court submitted the case to the jury under instructions that have not been challenged here. After the jury returned its verdict of guilty, the district court denied a timely motion for a judgment of acquittal under Fed.R.Crim.P. 29(c). Sentenced to imprisonment for a term of one year and a day, Mr. Moore has appealed the conviction.

[snip]

AFFIRMED.

Mr. Moore, there, was a first-offender, a non-violent offender, a non-drug offender, and an older guy. He "managed" the Elks bar/restaurant, without getting paid, and filled out a form omitting that "material" information. And he did prison time. For making a false statement. I won't argue that Moore didn't deserve the time . . . not really my call. After all, a jury convicted him, and when that happens, you usually do time, for a felony. And Moore didn't have any powerful friends, like the president, to pardon him.

I guess that's life.