Former Lake County Recorder Morris Carter could get a shortened prison sentence under a ruling Thursday from the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
Carter was sentenced in 2006 to 51 months in prison for extorting bribes totalling $1,900 from contractor Peter Livas, who wore a wire for the FBI and taped Carter talking openly about the payments.
In exchange for the bribes, Livas got a contractor's license he was not entitled to, received signed paperwork to remove a lien from his personal home, and had early access to a list of foreclosed properties that Livas could buy for his rehabbing business.
Carter testified in his own defense that the payments were legal "consulting" fees.
Appeals Judge Joel Flaum wrote Thursday that the evidence was more than strong enough for a reasonable jury to conclude that Carter committed the crimes for which he was convicted.
Yet Carter may still be entitled to a more lenient sentence, the appeals court ruled.
That's because U.S. District Judge Rudy Lozano stated in open court that he did not "have a problem" with a shorter sentence requested by defense attorney Darnail Lyles. The appeals court ordered Lozano to hold a new sentencing hearing.
Carter was eligible for a sentence between 51 and 63 months, although federal judges have the authority to depart from sentencing guidelines in cases where the guidelines are too harsh or not strict enough.
Lyles had requested a downward departure based on Carter's seven years of honest public service before his criminal activity during his last year in office.
But Lozano could not find any judicial rule allowing that request. And the judge had recently attended a conference in which congressional officials said lawmakers would start writing laws for mandatory minimum sentences if judges handed down too many lenient sentences.
"I don't have a problem with the departure, but I have to find some authority, some basis for it before I'm going to do it," Lozano told Carter during the sentencing hearing May 8, 2006.
The appeals judges ruled Thursday that Lozano should not have feared the wrath of lawmakers in the Carter case, and that he has the power to depart from the guidelines by factoring Carter's public service under a category called "history and characteristics of the defendant."
