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you enter it now by Billy cunning into Great America and of course poth View
Sitton Fell was one of a few city council and then in office who had
done wrong for deeds. He was perhaps the last of the current crops could
be sentenced for sixteen months and sentencing in position with delayed till December the first
Jonan you and I now shuing Coolidge of the Inquiry and sharing you but on
this case and beginning to the end, and one of the most interesting things
to me is at the end. You wrote a column today for the Inquiry
talking about the number of very influential citizens who stepped up to put their name
on the line, including people like Deborah Dixon, people in the media,
retired judges. What were the three or four of the influential people that stepped
up to put their name on the line you found rather interesting. I think,
honestly, taken as a whole, that the letters are very interesting.
But some of the names on the list former Mayor Mark Mallory, sitting Cincinnati
City Councilman Reggie Harris. So there's and then there's like very prominent donors to
the Democratic Party on here too, like Tony Alexander, Jenny Rosenthal. The
kind of people that you see on my cost committees for campaign fundraisers are on
this list. And the other thing I find illustrative is that it appears normally,
I've known a bunch of judges for a long time, and they normally
go to the bench already knowing what they're going to do. And this sentencing
there were three hundred and thirty four pages of almost two hundred letters, along
with all the pre sentencing reports and all that kind of stuff, and you
kind of imply possibly, of course, we don't know. We can't jump
into Judge Cole's head as to whether it had some impact, but at least
at first blush, he received less time than to Maya Dinard, And this
PG Sentenfeld went to trial, put the back of the US Attorney's office up
to the wall. They spent thousands of hours, hundreds of thousands of dollars
to prosecute, and he received less of a sentence than to Maya Denard.
Do you think the atmosphere of the support for pag Sentenfeld played a part in
getting a lesser sentence. Well, I mean, he honestly himself did say
that these letters were so compelling. He mentioned them, he had read them.
He said he really had never seen anything like it. And he in
particular talked about pg's own three page letter in which she talks about how he's
grown and changed, calling it one of the most compelling letters that he's ever
seen. And really he took it to heart, and I think it was
a huge played a huge role when it came to actually handing down a sense
that was not only more than my dinird, but more importantly a downward departure
from the sentencing guidelines. In fact, the Feds wont it like three or
four years his lawyer. I think the lawyers for him did a great job,
but only can do so much. Offered up probation and home incarceration.
So the sixteen months for a week's long federal trial, hundreds of thousands or
millions of dollars of money spent, I think they must have done a pretty
good job during the trial, etc. And in this case, you've covered
city Hall for on a fifteen twenty thirty years. This is the defining moment
when four members of council if you would throw in the gang of five the
other one you had three on federal charges. It is amazing that we have
a city council where PG sit and failed to mynired Jeff Pastor and also Wendell
Young. I think he pled out to a misdemeanor, a minor misdemeanor on
the gang of fime stuff. That you had four members of council under criminal
investigation and charges, it's almost like the city of Cleveland, and well,
what did you find them? Over the years and years this thing unfurled.
Sharon Kelly, I'm sorry, Sharon Cooley. Do you think that that crimes?
And I said this some of my buddies, I'm not sure if PG
sit and felt while the offense was going on, was said, you know,
you're committing felonies, his answer would have been no, I'm campaign financing.
Did PG sit and felt even at the end, no, he committed
serious felonies? Well he says no, And so I really can't like put
my own opinion on it, but I can talk a little bit about things
that we did hear at the trial. Things we saw, I mean going
to apartments to collect checks, talking to you know, an undercover FBI agent
to be sure, who pretended to be a developer and then in their buddies
who you know, pretended to be part of the mob, right, yeah,
like that's like a passing. Like PG was very curious about who these
people were, rightly so, by the way, and then you know,
oh, I'm connected to the mob. We don't really talk about it.
And Pg's like, okay, we heard it. And you know, this
was something the federal prosecutor said at trials, at the sentencing, you know,
the jurors. Of course, this was very complicated and two of the
six charges they did convict on, but graam work get to sentencing, and
the prosecutor was like, all I have to do is press play on the
audio on the video. I mean, that's a hallmark of all of these
cases, all three of them. Everything is caught on video. Will probably
never see Jet Pastors because he has agreed to plead guilty and he hasn't been
sentenced yet, although you know it's going to be capped at two years.
We know when it finally does happen. But that was what they said.
They're like, watch the videos, listen to the audio U And it was
there for everyone to see, and the judge did say, as much as
everything was compelling, he did say it warranted a prison sent It is still
prison no matter what length that is. Uh, your heart did break.
His wife is in there, you know. I know he has two little
kids. I'm a mother, and you just say you did see that,
right. But he said, what is this is the judge, what is
the deterrent? He's like, because clearly nothing is working. He's so he
did say, as as compelled as he was by all of these letters,
a packed courtroom, there's like one hundred people in the courtroom, plus an
overflow room. I've never seen anything like it in federal court. So he
was like, this Warren's prison, it's like O's. Otherwise, there is
no deterrent. It keeps happening. They were, you know, they're citing
examples from other places. You just talked about Cleveland. I was just reading
the Jimmy Tomorrow case to see how many letters were written in that case.
But they're talking about what happened in Toledo. They're talking about all these other
cases, and yes, it happening. Sharon Coolidge of the Inquire it's that
part about I'm connected to the mob and PG sent and felt not caring.
And then the other thing you bring up is I was aware a year or
two ago about tql connections in which PG sid and felt seemingly shook down the
ballet and Tql to get the deal approved. Explain that that was like a
huge bombshell at the sentencing that it came out as an aside leading up into
the sentence thing. It was unclear during trial there was a list of possible
witnesses and there was a list of about with maybe nine developers. I forget
exactly how many, kind of listed by initials, and then you kind of
put it together of like what was the do was the initials? They never
testify a trial, but then we go into sentencing and we're kind of like,
are we going to hear their victim impact statements? Right in this case,
developers would be so we're going to hear from them, and we're going
to hear from some of these people who wrote letters. Right on both sides
they and it was clear that there was definite discussions of it because the judge
was like, what'd you guys decide? He asked, both sides, do
you both want to have your you know, your people come up and talk
and they said, no, we agreed not to. So then we're in
the sentencing portion and Charlie Brokers, who's representing PG, talks about how PG
was really for the little guy. He talks about this whole very old case
in which, you know, he talks about how pg's itself helped this peanut
vendor. There's a big thing way back when about the lottery of where vendors
could be and big mass back then. So he's like saying all these amazing
things about PG helping the little guy, and the federal prosecutor on the case,
Matt Singer, you could tell he was just annoyed. He kind of
snapped back and he was like, uh no, no, and he's like
he's done this before, and out of a clear blue he talks about this
CEO a stadium project at a private entity, and I mean, I knew
right away that it was the vallet. I remember the big fight about should
the valet stay should they go, And it was a fight over zoning.
And the federal prosecutor drags out all these details that we didn't hear a trial
and everything, and then he says that PG demanded eleven million dollars from the
said CEO, which of course we all know is you know, related FC
Cincinnati and TQL Stadium and Jeffers Bromshell. Yeah. In fact, Jeff Berning
believes he was shaken down a little bit by PG for eleven million dollars and
that was a non starter. They weren't on a pay but they got PAG
got the vote anyway. But you're a column reference. We have not heard
from Jeff on the eleven million. What was publicly said that day was a
one. There was a big fight over one million dollar dollars and the shakedown
comments. There's like stories back and forth between the ballet and FT Cincinnati,
And we did hear the figure one million dollars. We had never heard the
figure eleven million dollars before, but that was something that was said privately.
Now Jeff did not talk this week at all, as far as I could
tell to anyone. But that was really a big shock. Now, the
US Attorney's office, it was kind of in fight in court. It was
kind of left like open ended. Was it paid or whatever. The US
Attorney's Office did come out and say no payment was ever made, but they
certainly were aware of you know they are alleging that this threat was made in
PG, of course is denying that. Of course it's a big shock.
We'll see if the matter is concluded, but it'll be up to the sixth
circle whether the delay execution of sentence. The judge gave him until December first
to get his affairs in order. We'll see what happens. But maybe you
should write a book on this. Right here, what's next? Here you
go? Three three tracks. Okay, they have to decide the twenty thousand
dollars forfeiture just PG. Is he personally liable for that on top of his
forty thousand dollars fine or can it come out of the pack which they're just
trying to get back the money that the undercovers gave during the case. So
track one, Track two appeals that has to be filed fourteen days real appeal.
This is going to take months. I feel this is never going to
be over built. And third track the chance to ask the chance. These
charges called for PG to be remanded immediately, and the judge did say is
allowing PG. He got to go home the night of sentencing, allowing him
to remain out on bond while he in a very speedy process, asks the
Sixth Circuit Court of Appeal if he can remain out during the appeals process,
because I mean, honestly, the appeals process won't be done. All already
observed it sentence, would they say, but three tracks were following at this
point long time, And in fact it might be a very long time because
the appeals could take two to four years, and by the time the appeals
were successful or unsuccessful, if he's remanded to custody, he would have served
a sentence before the appeals are heard. And if they're reversed, then he
served the sixteen months for nothing, which is always well, now, nobody
wants to go to prison. But a big takeaway from these letters today is
that these people believe that PG has a future as a leader in this city.
Say that again, Say that again, say that again that pgs stop
it and a big takeaway. So, yes, he might have served the
prison time at that point, but it's these charges. If there is an
acquittal, then he does not have a felony charge and he can run for
office again. It is something that is huge. Not just prison time at
stake, but can PG run for office again is also at stake, so
PG may come back, assuming it doesn't have a felon In Ohio, you
can't run with a felony conviction. So if it's affirmed on appeal two to
four years from now, he can't run. But if he's found in a
sense to reverse the conviction, and there's all kinds of grounds for appeal,
who knows. Normally these cases do get reversed on appeal. Just talk to
the Governor of Virginia McDonald, and they get reversed all the time on appeal.
And if it is reversed on appeal, that means he can run again
for city council. And I would think he'd be re elected. I mean,
there's one hundred and eighty five letters from the best in the brightest,
and well, we'll see what happens. But no point did you say I'm
guilty. I will take full responsibility. And he couldn't. I mean,
you can't on the appeal, you can't. But such acknowledge that too.
Back to him, he kind of said that himself. He did speak a
sentence thinking he was crying. The entire courtroom practically except for the reporters,
was crying. You heard like one of the people in the overflow room.
Is like, you couldn't really see everything. You could hear the sobs over
PG talking, but forget where it was going with that. I don't know.
You could not accept responsibility because of what his appeals are going to be
based on. So the judge brought it up to now he's going to say
on appeal he didn't have the requisite men's read the criminal intent, and he
thought he was doing what was proper. He didn't personally benefit at all directly.
Of course, he benefited personally indirectly. But in Jeff Pastor's case,
she took bags of cash on a jet on video, and that's personally benefiting
to my Dinnard took money to pay her bills, and that's one thing.
But PG sittvel didn't. I will say something that came out as an aside.
Yes, the money went directly into their pockets in the pack money that
TG has basically all still sitting there. He didn't spend it. Something that
did come out. As long as we're talking about Jeff Pastor, I suspect
I got there very early. I was sitting in the front row. The
judge might have seen a surprise on my face. When he said this aloud,
he said he took into consideration what happened Inta Maya's case and what was
likely going to happen in Jeff's case. He's talking about these things and he's
like, well, you know, Jeff Pastor sold fifty thousand dollars substantially more
than fifty thousand dollars, and I'm sure I have a terrible poker face.
I'm sure I looked shocked because I'd never heard that before. And the judge
is like, you know, I don't think that's really public, so I'm
not going to really get into those details. And I was like, earnest
darness. So that also kind of came out at the vent and thing,
well, fifty thousand dollars bags of cash, he's on a private jet from
here to Miami, and everything's recorded video and audio, and they got Jeff
Pastor tied up in a bow. And to my denard was just typical simple
bribery, but in this case it was indirectly to benefit him politically, and
he gave the money that he received democrats all over town. And I'll make
this prediction, this matter will be reversed on appeal and PG Sidenfeld will run
again. Well for that first part, you're not the only person saying that
to me in the last one. Don't know the days they're running together here
the last three days. Yeah, you know what, for a while people
were saying, you know, I don't they didn't really see how this was
gonna, you know, be overturned. The judge himself, I will say,
during sentencing and he said in post trial motions a lot of these appeal
arguments had already made. He's like, no, no, no, of
course they were decisions that he presided. Ever, but then he uh said
that he does not think they're going to be overturned at the sixth Circuit.
But that is not what I've kind of heard in these following days here.
Yeah, all right, Sharon Cooley is great coverage. Stories are in the
inquiry And once again, thank you for coming on the Bill Cunningham Show.
Thank you, Sharon, Thanks for having me. All right, thank you.
Well, let's continue the line becomes available, which it never does.
Five months, seven nine seven thousand pg. Sittenfeld one day will be free
on news Radio seven hundred w altib