Weiss v. Lerach: Analyzing Two Sentences

[WSJ_law_blog]

As reported a few moments ago, Mel Weiss was sentenced to 30 months in prison. That’s six months more than the two years his former partner Bill Lerach is serving. But it’s three months short of the sentence the prosecution had sought.

Was the judge more sympathetic to Weiss? It seems that perhaps he was.

According to the Journal’s Rhonda Rundle, who was in the courtroom, the comparison between the two men was a big theme at the sentencing hearing today in federal court in Los Angeles. Followers of this story will recall that Judge John Walter imposed on Lerach the top sentence envisioned in his plea agreement and indicated he might have gone higher had the agreement allowed for it.

Judge Walter was plenty harsh on Weiss today as well. He pointed to what he called the seriousness of the offense, which he said involved a “nationwide conspiracy that continued for decades.” Prosecutor Doug Axel argued that throughout seven years of the investigation Weiss had “hid behind the firm” and failed to come forward and acknowledge his offenses. Judge Walter said that while Lerach in effect withdrew from the conspiracy after the investigation began, Weiss did not do so.

But the judge also picked up on points raised by Weiss’s attorney, Benjamin Brafman, who noted the eleven-year age difference between Lerach and Weiss and also spoke to Weiss’s “fifty year track record” as a lawyer.

Calling the age issue a “very powerful argument,” Judge Walter said it was “appropriate to take into account his age and his good works.” He called the 275 letters submitted in support of Weiss before the hearing “a showing that I don’t think I’ve ever seen” in the time that he’d been on the bench. The letters “attest to the life of an extraordinary man.”

“Mr. Weiss is a fighter,” the judge said. “I was somewhat surprised that Mr. Weiss didn’t put the government to its burden of proof in a trial.” But he said: “I think he made the right decision.”

“His conviction has destroyed his personal legacy,” the judge said. “The personal embarrassment and disgrace” may hurt more than the loss of his liberty.