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I pumped my fist in the air at the news federal prosecutors gave notice they wanted to appeal the powder puff sentence U.S. District Judge Ronald L. Buckwalter gave to convicted former state Sen. Vincent Fumo.
Good for the feds. They should appeal the sentence. It's a bad joke. Anyone who isn't a friend of Fumo's or a white-collar lawyer looking to use the sentence down the road to soften the jail time for a future client knows it.
The 3rd Circuit needs to review the sentence. I know they think highly of Buckwalter, but so what? Unless they just want to protect the judge, they'll take a good, hard look at it. They shouldn't uphold it. It's one thing to give judges discretion. It's another when guidelines get tossed out the window and sentences are all about the whims of a particular judge.
Is it just my imagination, or was Fumo's trial longer than the sentence Buckwalter gave him? Maybe it just seems that way.
Just to recap, Fumo was found guilty of 137 counts of fraud, tax offenses and obstruction of justice. Does that sound serious to you? It does to me. Apparently it was serious to the probation officers. In their presentencing report they recommended giving Fumo between 21 and 27 years.
The only one who didn't take all of this seriously was Buckwalter. He gave Fumo 55 months.
Congratulations, judge. You just became the poster boy for mandatory minimums and for anyone who thinks corrupt public officials get preferential treatment.
In light of everything that came out during the trial, the presentence recommendation and Fumo's lack of remorse, what Buckwalter did can't even be termed a slap on the wrist. It's more of a kiss on the cheek.
My objection to the sentence is not so much the length, but Buckwalter's bizarre comments from the bench and his apparent reasoning. He seemed to take everyone else to task but Fumo.
He was particularly out of line with regard to his comments about The Philadelphia Inquirer. In her excellent July 18 column, the Inky's Karen Heller quoted Buckwalter as saying that the scheme Fumo used to defraud taxpayers "was so simple that reporters and the staff of The Philadelphia Inquirer could discover it."
Gee, I guess Buckwalter thinks that only lawyers and judges can uncover sophisticated and important things. I guess Watergate and the Pentagon Papers were simple and minor, too.
What Buckwalter seemed to make a big deal out of were all the letters of support Fumo got. Many of them, like Fumo, came from the rich and powerful crowd.
What Buckwalter doesn't understand is that the rich and powerful are often very nice to each other, provided they're not fighting over the same particular piece of the pie at that moment.
Buckwalter also seemed to ignore all the testimony during Fumo's trial of instances — having ex-girlfriends followed by private investigators, trying to force people to sell pieces of property — where Fumo tried to use his power to crush average people.
Buckwalter's cluelessness is evident in how he almost dismissed the notion, despite the guilty verdict on 137 counts, that Fumo did anything wrong.
As Heller quoted him in her column, "What is the crime we're talking about here?" he asked. "It's not the selling of a political office. In fact, in this case, not a dime went directly to the defendant, although there's no question that he benefited from what he was able to get from the budget of the Senate."
Fumo didn't have to sell his office. He was so powerful he didn't have to. He was so powerful he could try to shake down a large company, Verizon, for money to give to his nonprofit.
What Buckwalter ignored was that Fumo threatened that company with government action unless it paid millions to an organization tied to him. Ask average citizens what that is, and they'll tell you it's extortion.
Fumo wasn't charged with anything related to that. But the testimony about the events was presented. If Buckwalter could consider letters that weren't part of the trial, he could certainly consider the behavior that was described at trial. He also could take into consideration that Fumo had gotten in trouble twice before, including a prior conviction in federal court that was eventually overturned.
The worst part about Buckwalter's handling of Fumo's sentence is that he treated public corruption like a minor traffic violation. Despite his comments mocking the prosecutors' argument about the need to send a message regarding public corruption, Buckwalter delivered one. Unfortunately, it was the wrong one.
The public cared a lot about the sentence. Most people I talk to were angry and disheartened. And not just in the Philadelphia region. A lot of people in Northeastern Pennsylvania, which is grappling with a huge investigation that has uncovered massive public corruption, felt the same way.
That's where Buckwalter did the most damage. It disillusioned a lot of people. Based on all the conversations I've had with folks up there, I don't doubt that some whistleblowers won't come forward, because their attitude is: Why should I risk my neck when all the judge is going to do is go easy on the guy?
In happy contrast to Buckwalter's bungle, there's U.S. District Judge Edwin M. Kosik, who at the end of July threw out the plea agreements for the two judges at the heart of the Luzerne County judicial scandal.
In plain, terse language, Kosik read the judges the riot act, in no small part because of what he said was their lack of remorse and their refusal to accept their guilt. Kosik understood the damage the judges had done through their actions and the need for them to receive an appropriate punishment.
"We paraphrase what has been written about judges, that, above all things, integrity is their lot and proper virtue, the landmark, and he that removes it, corrupts the fountain," Kosik wrote in his July 30 order. "In this case, the fountain from which the public drinks is confidence in the judicial system — a fountain which may be corrupted for a time well after this case."
Those angered by Fumo's sentence should take heart. Kosik's order is proof that some judges do understand the evil that public corruption causes. Lose the ire over Buckwalter. He has reached his appointment with history, and he missed horribly. He'll forever be seen as a judge who thought public corruption was OK. •
Hank Grezlak is the editor-in-chief of The Legal Intelligencer . He may be contacted at 215-557-2486, or by
e-mail at hank.grezlak@incisivemedia.com.
