Vince Fumo to be resentenced in Nov.
PHILADELPHIA - September 26, 2011
Prosecutors successfully challenged the 4½-year sentence in the
case, leading Sr. U.S. District Judge Ronald Buckwalter to schedule
a Nov. 9 do-over.
A jury in 2009 convicted Fumo of defrauding the state Senate, a
museum and a nonprofit of millions by using their staff and
resources to fund his lavish lifestyle. He had been a wealthy
Democratic power broker during his 30-year state Senate career.
An appeals court ruled last month that Buckwalter had ignored
more than $1.5 million in losses and made other mistakes in
calculating Fumo's sentence.
Prosecutors believe the guideline range for Fumo's fraud is 18
to 21 years.
"Really, nothing has changed," Assistant U.S. Attorney John
Pease said Monday.
Defense lawyer Dennis Cogan will urge Buckwalter to give the
same 55-month sentence, but explain his reasoning. Fumo has been
left "twisting in the wind" amid the uncertainty, Cogan said.
Fumo, 68, remains in prison in Kentucky and did not attend
Monday's scheduling hearing. He has gained weight and grown a beard
and long hair while in prison, according to Cogan, who called his
client depressed.
Cogan asked that Fumo be allowed to skip the court hearing next
month and be sentenced over a video hookup, to avoid what Cogan
called the exhausting, circuitous travel on prison planes and
buses. It can take weeks to get from Kentucky to Philadelphia on
the U.S. Bureau of Prison's system of hub travel for prisoners -
which inmates wryly call "diesel therapy," Cogan said.
Buckwalter, though, said he wanted to sentence Fumo
face-to-face.
The judge acknowledged two procedural errors that he does not
want to repeat. He said he found it difficult to hear Fumo testify
in the ceremonial courtroom, where the high-profile sentencing was
held to accommodate more people. And he said he did not want to
hand down a sentence at the end of a long day of testimony.
Buckwalter said he may not issue his ruling the day of the
hearing.
Lawyers on each side must again submit sentencing memos for the
judge to ponder.
Fumo might be moved to a more secure facility if he ends up with
more than a decade left to serve, defense lawyers said. He is
currently in a minimum-security prison.
"This judge already knows a lot more about Vince Fumo than all
of the judges on the 3rd Circuit (Court of Appeals)," Cogan said.
"Fifty-five months in jail is no bed of roses."
Co-defendant Ruth Arnao, a Fumo aide who has already served her
original one-year sentence, will be re-sentenced Nov. 16.