28-year sentence in Ohio for man involved in $100M charity scam

CLEVELAND (AP) — A judge handed down a 28-year prison sentence today to a man convicted of masterminding a $100 million, cross-country Navy veterans charity fraud.

Judge Steven Gall also ordered the defendant, who identifies himself as 67-year-old Bobby Thompson, to pay a $6 million fine. Authorities say the defendant is Harvard-trained attorney John Donald Cody.

The Ohio attorney general's office, which handled his trial, asked the judge in a filing last week to sentence him to 41 years in prison.

The judge rejected a request for a new trial. The defense had said comments by jurors after the verdict that they were disappointed he hadn't testified showed they were biased against him.

The defendant, whose appearance in court today was neat in contrast to the final days of his trial, slumped in his chair as the sentence was read. He complained to the judge about alleged abusive treatment by jailers while locked up during the trial.

There was no immediate response from the sheriff's department. Jailers said earlier that the defendant had acted erratically and had bloodied his forehead smashing it against a holding cell wall.