The longer you've been at FG, the more this will mean to you

Remember this Rascal?
(Click on picture to enlarge)

Yesterday, September 12, 2011, was one of those satisfying days when justice was seen to done. The following report is courtesy of Fred Wolf:

"At the courthouse in Tampa yesterday, David Peterson was sentenced to 84 months in the federal prison at Coleman, FL for conspiracy to commit fraud, for which he had pled guilty. The Judge also gave him mandatory career change and forbid him to ever seek investors along with 3 years supervised probation. He was also ordered to pay restitution in an amount of approximately $6.5 million. There still has to be another waste of time hearing for the court to determine who gets what. We all know what that amounts to.
The judge stated he had to go by the federal sentencing guidelines, which in the cases pertaining to fraud, he feels are not harsh enough. He gave him the maximum allowed by these guidelines.
It helped that four of the victims came forth at the hearing and told the court their story and how Peterson's crimes affected them, and that many wrote letters to the court. The judge stated he read every one of them and thanked all that took this time and that it really put it in perspective to hear directly from some of the victims."

One of the four people that told their story in court yesterday was Sandy Gallup. Here is Sandy's perspective of "their day in court."

"Yesterday I attended the David Peterson sentencing and it was very interesting. There were four of us who spoke and the Judge acknowledged that he had gotten LOTS of letters from "victims" and had read everyone. I was most impressed with his handling of the sentencing and if the laws had not been recently changed, I am sure he would have gotten 20 years, at least. However, sometime recently the time was changed to 78 months with Judge's discretion to increase it (and he did to 84 months).

The Come-Uppance Dinner Group
(Click on picture to enlarge)

"David was given a HARSH verbal thrashing by the Judge after our testifying as to how he took so much from all of us - not just money, but time from our "golden years". This was the first time I had ever laid eyes on David. Most there had commented on how he had aged, etc. David spoke in his own defense to the Judge who absolutely did not buy a bit of his story and admonish-ed him greatly for all he had done. His wife, Diedre (whom I had also never seen before) was there in court along with his aging parents (how sad for them to see this), and at the end, Diedre was crying - probably cause she is terrified that the same will happen to her when her sentencing comes up on Oct. 6th.  A very moving day to say the least!!!!"

After the hearing, David shuffled off to his cell and many of  the Florida Grande attendees seized the occasion as a great reason to go to dinner - how elated they all look!