'Langford In The Sewer'
Copyright by Sharon McEachern
Larry Langford is headed to Federal Prison. Sentencing was this week -- 15 years. He says he'll be appealing his 60-count conviction, but...
Birmingham's Mayor, that's ex-mayor now, has been the focus of five Ethic Soup posts (following with links) -- the first when arrested, the second when convicted on 60 counts, the third about Birmingham's bankruptcy exposure, the fourth on Birmingham's new mayoral race with 14 candidates and the fifth is this post on sentencing.
In Langford's trial, after six days of testimony, a federal jury took less than two hours to convict the mayor on 60 counts including bribery, fraud and money laundering. The conspiracy took place from July 2002 until May 2007, during which the former mayor took $241,000 in bribes in exchange for giving $7.2 million in sewer-bond and derivatives business to a friend who was an investment banker.
For Langford's role in corrupt bond deals that threaten to mushroom into the biggest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history, he was sentenced by U.S. District Judge L. Scott Coogler in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Although Langford was expected to get a term of at least 24 years, which prosecutors asked, instead he got 15 years. Besides his time behind bars, 63-year-old Langford was sentenced to three years probation and ordered to pay almost $367,000 in financial penalties.
Federal Judge Coogler ordered Langford to report to U.S. Marshals on April 5 to begin his prison term. In the mean time, or the next 30 days, Langford must wear an ankle bracelet and be monitored by the court.
In an editorial by the Birmingham News editorial board:
"...And he sold out the people he was elected to serve, trading their trust for l$235,000 in cash, gifts and benefits for himself. His crime was not something undertaken in one weak moment, either. It was a pattern of taking, taking and taking from people whose t money from our pockets into their own. Along the way, Langford clearly lost sight of whom he was suppose to serve."
To date, Langford has stubbornly refused to acknowledge he did anything wrong. Well, soon he will be living with a whole lot of other men who refuse to do the same. I wonder if that will bring them closer together? Uh-oh.
by Sharon McEachern
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