June 28, 2007
Siegelman, Scrushy sentenced
Judge Fuller began handing down the sentences around 7:15 p.m.
Siegelman received 88 months, or a little over 7 years, in prison for his role in the bribery and conspiracy scandal. He was also ordered to pay a fine of $50,000 plus $181,000 in restitution. Once he’s released from prison, he’ll spend several years under supervised release and complete 500 hours of community service.
For his role in the conspiracy and bribery scandal, former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy was given a little over six years in prison and a fine of $150,000, due immediately. He was also ordered to pay restitution of $267,000 to the United Way immediately. Scrushy will be placed under supervised release for three years once his prison time is served and Fuller ordered him to complete 500 hours of community service.
On Thursday, Fuller sided with the prosecution and increased the minimum sentence parameters for Siegelman because Fuller was “convinced that the conduct in which Gov. Siegelman engaged in has damaged the function of the executive branch of government in this state and the public’s confidence in the executive branch.”
A motion seeking the same for Scrushy was denied later in the afternoon.
In the courtroom, Scrushy’s supporters were audibly upset, their sobs low but audible. I passed his very pregnant oldest daughter, Christa, on the stairs as I walked out of the courthouse, as well as his wife Leslie, who took the stand earlier as a character witness on her husband’s behalf. All of Scrushy’s family and friends were in tears as they waited by the elevators. Leslie waited for the groups of attorneys representing the various sides to pass through the plaza of the courthouse and out onto the street before emerging with a brave face. When one reporter asked her what she was going to do now, she said she was going to go home to her babies and try to explain to them what happened.
It’s been a strange blogging experience for this writer. I’ve enjoyed getting to see such a historical case on an up close and personal level, but it’s hard not to become completely immersed in a story like this one. It pulled me in from every side—it’s all anyone wanted to talk about, write about, over dinner, on the phone. I had supporters from both sides stop me in the hall, in the bathroom, just to talk about how much they truly love and admire their friends who were waiting for the shoe to fall. They didn’t know I worked for the media, and I didn’t go out of my way to identify myself as such, because while I was there in an official capacity, when they told me their stories and confessions, I became just another person, an outsider looking in, as so many of us are.
In the end, it’s the families we feel the most for in times and situations like these, and on Thursday in Montgomery, it was no different.
