Conyers sentence fires up debate

Paul Egan / The Detroit News

Detroit -- Detroit City Council President Pro Tem Monica Conyers says she chose her words carefully on her TV show this week because "I don't want to go to jail."

And although she pleaded guilty Friday to a five-year felony, the possibility exists she won't.

"I'm certainly going to make my best-case argument that she should receive a non-prison sentence," her Detroit attorney, Steve Fishman, said Wednesday.

Fishman would not disclose the arguments he will make, saying he would make his case in a memorandum he will file in federal court before Conyers' sentencing in about three months.But there is disagreement over what federal sentencing guidelines should apply to Conyers, who announced this week she will resign Monday.

Even after that question is settled, federal judges are no longer bound by sentencing guidelines, so the sentence Conyers receives will be whatever U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn believes is appropriate.

Cohn said when he accepted Conyers' guilty plea that prosecutors believe her guidelines exceed the maximum penalty for conspiring to commit bribery. That means that if Cohn sentences Conyers within the range calculated by prosecutors, she will get the full five years.

Fishman calculated a much lower guideline range for Conyers -- 30 to 37 months -- and can ask Cohn to sentence Conyers below that range.One apparent area of disagreement is the value of the benefit received -- a key component in calculating the sentencing guidelines.

The numbers prosecutors used to calculate Conyers' sentencing guidelines have not been released. But calculation worksheets for Rayford W. Jackson, her co-accused, show prosecutors used a $20-million-plus "benefit value." That large figure is based on the $1.2 billion value of the sewage sludge contract, rather than the bribe amount of $5,000 to $6,000 that Jackson admitted paying and Conyers admitted receiving.

A similar figure was likely used in the Conyers calculations. Using the amount of the bribe in place of the amount of the contract would reduce the recommended sentence.

Still, experts were skeptical Wednesday that Fishman could keep Conyers out of prison.

Thomas Melsheimer, a former assistant federal prosecutor in Texas who is now a private attorney in Dallas, said sentencing guidelines are generally calculated in a way that benefits the government.

"If you try to steal $1 million, but you only get $1,000, the sentencing guidelines would be calculated based on the $1 million," Melsheimer said.

Frank Perry, director of investigations and public affairs for the Foundation for Ethics in Public Service in Raleigh, N.C., said he feels the crucial nature of Conyers' vote -- having changed her position from opposing to supporting the Synagro Technologies Inc. sludge deal in 2007 to allow it to pass 5-4 -- mitigates against a lighter sentence, regardless of the size of the bribe.

"There's a growing sense of increasing the accountability of public officials by way of stiffer sentences," said Perry, a former FBI special agent who handled public corruption cases. "I believe that's the trend."