U.S. District Judge Andrew Gilford sentenced former Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona to 66 months in prison and a $125,000 fine for a single felony count of witness tampering. After he gets out of the pen, he muist serve 2 years of probation.
Prosecutors had asked for Carona to be sentenced to 9 years in prison, while the probation report recommended 6 1/2 years. Carona himself sought probation or home detention.Â
Carona is expected to appeal his conviction and defense lawyers will ask if he can remain free upon appeal. The judge indicated earlier in today’s hearing that Carona would face between 63 and 78 months in prison — and the Register reports because this is a federal case, Carona would have to serve at least 85 percent of the sentence, which is looking like a minimum of 4 years in the slammer.
At Orange Punch, Steve Greenhut commented that Carona is asking for the very thing he told voters he would not give –leniency.
I AM VERY PLEASED WITH THE SENTENCE.CORONA HAS GOTTEN AWAY WITH SO MUCH MORE BUT AT LEAST HE WILL DO SOME TIME.HE SHOULD NOT BE ABLE TO STAY OUT DURING APPEALS. ROT IN HELL CORONA BECAUSE THATS WHAT YOU DESERVE IF PEOPLE ONLY REALLY KNEW WHAT YOU DID CORONA SHOULD BE IN FOR LIFE AND THEN SOME.
If you or I were in front of that judge and asked to remain free until later in July, do you think the judge would allow us to stay out of jail?
Paul,
Sheriff Corana needs the extra time to get together with Rick Warren or Pastor Schuller to plan his “Spiritual” rebound.
Mark my words, he’ll be towing the Jesus Freak lines hot and heavy. Many fundalmentalists have short memories with regard to their heros and will only remember him as America’s Sheriff.