Now many a person asked "How he got off so easy". He funneled federal contracts to his family, using money set for recovery of a major disaster for his own enrichment. Can you think of anything lower? Well, yes you can, but point made.
Now the New Orleans Times Picayune, the three day a week paper of New Orleans has an article on why Nagin got off so easy. Just read.
5 reasons Ray Nagin got 10 years instead of 20
Ray Nagin faced a prison sentence twice as long as the 10 years handed down by a federal judge on Wednesday. In fact, the sentence was five years shorter than the 15 years U.S. District Judge Ginger Berrigan cited as the minimum called for under federal guidelines.
The deviation from the range marked a rare move that Berrigan justified with a fairly sympathetic take on the bribery conspiracy for which Nagin was convicted.
After taking the bench for a hearing that lasted just 30 minutes, Berrigan said she was working in a range of 15 to 20 years. Then she announced she planned to sentence the former mayor to a shorter term before launching into her colloquy -- a statement that explains the factors she was using to come up with the punishment for the 20-count conviction on federal bribery, tax evasion and wire fraud charges.
Five key factors that weighed in his favor:
1. Nagin didn't lead the conspiracy; he followed. Berrigan noted that Nagin was approached by the contractors who gave him and his sons cash and free granite for their business, and that the former mayor seemed not to be the ringleader of the bribery conspiracy.
2. He didn't pad his pockets as outrageously as some. The amounts of money Nagin made off with, she said, were far lower than in other recent political corruption cases.
3. Broussard and Jefferson set favorable precedents. Nagin's sentence is shorter than the 13-year term handed down for former U.S. Rep. William Jefferson and longer than the nearly four years given to former Jefferson Parish president Aaron Broussard, who took a plea deal he is currently fighting to get out from under.
4. He is unlikely to run for office again. Berrigan seemed to give some weight to Nagin's age, 58, and the ruin of his reputation, factors she said made it unlikely he would ever hold an office that would allow him to commit similar crimes again. "It is very unlikely (Nagin) would ever regain the public's trust," after his lengthy and public prosecution, Berrigan said.
5. He helped his family more than he enriched himself. Berrigan seemed to give credence to the notion that while Nagin accepted cash and free trips from city contractors, those benefits went mostly to his family....
Nagin did't lead the conspiracy? Get real. If a contractor offered him money, he could have done the right thing, refuse, call the cops to repot him, make sure this contractor didn't get any work because he wasn't to be trusted. He did it for his family? Please, I've heard that on the street, "I busted a cap in him and took his money because I needed money for my kids....oh, my BMW?...I need my BMW....and my EBT Card...well I needed to trade that for my crack...wait I didn't say that"
Not run for office again? Who cares. Also, a current member of the Washington DC City Counsel is a former federal convict, shown on video smoking crack. Can we have some standards for politicians. I guess not, according to the only daily paper in New Orleans. No wonder it's gone down to 3 days a week.
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