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Two plead guilty in corruption case
ROANOKE VA - Two men prosecutors say arranged prostitutes for two
Charlottesville police officers pleaded guilty to federal corruption
charges Thursday in Roanoke.
Charles M. Phillips, a former manager of Max nightclub who also ran a
local escort service, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery.
His associate, Jason Madison, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit
perjury.
Phillips could face up to 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine.
Madison could get five years and a $250,000 fine. They will not be
sentenced until city officers Roy Fitzgerald and Charles Saunders stand
trial on multiple corruption charges.
http://www.dailyprogress.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=CDP%2FMGArticle%2FCDP_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031782429350&path=!news 30 04 05 14:29 Cianci wants sentence reduced to 35 months
Vincent A. Cianci Jr., who turns 64 today, would like to come home from
prison before his next birthday.
In court papers filed yesterday, the former mayor of Providence asked a
federal judge to reduce his prison term for corruption from 64 months
to 35 months.
Cianci, who has served 29 months in federal prison at Fort Dix, N.J.,
would thereby be eligible for release this fall, rather than summer
2007.
But prosecutors countered that Cianci should receive more time, in part
because he "has not accepted responsibility for his actions."
The government also objected to Cianci's request, filed Thursday, that
he appear at his resentencing hearing in Providence via video
conference, to avoid the hardships of transport from Fort Dix.
Richard M. Egbert, Cianci's lawyer, argued that Cianci merits a reduced
sentence in light of his acquittal on all but one corruption charge,
and that he does not deserve the increased time -- about two years --
that he received for being the leader of a corruption racket at City
Hall.
Cianci, the longest-serving mayor in Providence history and acclaimed
maestro of the Providence Renaissance, was convicted in 2002 of
racketeering conspiracy. The maximum sentence for that crime is 20
years in prison.
http://www.projo.com/news/content/projo_20050430_cianci30.2199a04.html 14:27 San Diego's mayor quits in controversy
Dick Murphy, San Diego's Republican mayor, has given up his battle to
stay in charge of the southern California city, announcing on Wednesday
that he will resign on July 15.
He acknowledged defeat as pressure mounted for his removal in a recall
election, following months of controversy over his handling of the
city's pension fund. "A good leader knows when it is time to move on,"
Mr Murphy said at a press conference called less than five months after
he was installed for a second term.
His troubles were rooted in a $1.4bn pension-fund deficit that has led
to a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation of alleged fraud,
a federal corruption probe and repeated credit downgrades by ratings
firms.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/39403b38-b799-11d9-9f22-00000e2511c8.html 14:25 2 ex-Data Processing execs already charged
For the second time in a month San Diego City Attorney Michael Aguirre
is butting heads with District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis.
A day after Dumanis' office charged two former officials of a San Diego
city agency with crimes, Aguirre said he will launch his own
investigation into the agency's activities. Advertisement
Aguirre said yesterday that he wants his own staff to review the
district attorney's probe into the dealings of former executives of the
San Diego Data Processing Corp., a city-owned nonprofit computer and
telecommunications agency.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20050430-9999-7m30data.html 13:48
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