Justice for Gutierrez, injustice for Ohioans

A Franklin County judge last week meted out unmitigated mercy in sentencing Anthony Gutierrez, a ringleader in the Animal House antics that brought down former Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann.

Gutierrez, former close friend, roommate and general services director for Dann, originally faced six felony and four misdemeanor counts of criminal charges that included theft in office, workers’ compensation fraud, unauthorized use of property and soliciting or receiving improper compensation.

The Liberty man could have faced up to eight years (that’s 2,922 days) in the pokey for those transgressions. His sentence: 45 measly days and a relatively paltry $6,900 fine.

In a further gesture of generosity to Gutierrez, Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Laurel Beatty made sure the jail time won’t get in the way with his daily business dealings. Gutierrez will be serving the time only on weekends from December to March.

Such slap-on-the-wrist sentencing rightly appalls many Ohioans. It strengthens the perceptions of double-standard justice and of preferential treatment toward white-collar and public-employee sleazeballs.

It understates the disruption that Gutierrez contributed to the highest legal office in Ohio. And it does little to raise hopes that officials will vigorously pursue justice for the other characters in the 2008 Ohio attorney-general scandal – up to and including Dann himself.

One heck of a deal for Gutierrez

Beatty’s sentence feeds the perception of disparities in sentencing between nonviolent street crimes and nonviolent corporate or public-sector crimes.

It also accents the oftentimes foul game of plea dealing, which in Gutierrez’s case resulted in the erasure of most of the former general services director’s felony counts.

Gutierrez reached a deal in August in which prosecutors dropped four felony counts in exchange for Gutierrez pleading guilty to the other charges: felony counts of theft in office and unauthorized use of public property, and misdemeanor charges of soliciting improper compensation, filing false ethics statements and attempted workers’ compensation fraud.

Such generous back-room wheeling and dealing resulted even though all evidence indicates Gutierrez was hardly a model citizen during his tenure in Dann’s office. Gutierrez sexually harassed employees, reminded subordinates of his family ties to organized crime and repeatedly drove a state vehicle while consuming alcohol, according to the results of a state investigation last year.

One condition of his plea deal, however, holds out a ray of hope that other potential offenders in the scandal will not escape some form of justice. The plea agreement requires Gutierrez to cooperate in ongoing investigations into other figures from the 2007-08 reign of Dann.

Unfortunately, that hope is thin and grows thinner by the day. The statute of limitations on some possible charges expires next May, and Ohio Ethics Commission and Franklin County prosecutors leading the investigation show no clear signs that they are closing in on other targets.