Ex-Baltimore Mayor Gets 3 Years In Prison For ‘Healthy Holly’ Children’s Book Scheme – By Brakkton Booker (NPR) / Feb 27 2020
Former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh was sentenced to three years in federal prison Thursday.
It was just months ago that she pleaded guilty to federal fraud, tax and conspiracy charges over a scheme involving sales of her self-published Healthy Holly children’s books.
Prosecutors had been seeking a five-year prison sentence for the 69-year-old Democrat who has spent decades in Maryland politics. Pugh’s lawyers, in turn, had asked the judge for a more lenient prison sentence of one year and one day, noting that she is a first-time offender and she entered a guilty plea.
In the end, neither side got its desired outcome, as reporter Emily Sullivan of member station WYPR tweeted.
Once Pugh completes her prison sentence, she will serve three years of supervised release.
Pugh was “visibly stressed” Thursday when she walked into the courtroom, according to The Associated Press, which adds that she teared up at seeing a number of her friends in the courtroom.
U.S. District Judge Deborah Chasanow also ordered Pugh to forfeit approximately $670,000, which includes a home on Ashburton, Md., and nearly $18,000 in her campaign account.
Continue to article: https://www.npr.org/2020/02/27/809929622/ex-baltimore-mayor-to-be-sentenced-for-healthy-holly-children-s-book-scheme
