A judge Friday morning sentenced former Fairbanks Mayor Jim Hayes and
his wife to 5 1/2 and 3 years in federal prison, respectively, for
stealing from social-service grants between 2001 and 2005.
In handing down a longer sentence for the former three-term mayor than
wife Murilda "Chris" Hayes, District Judge John Sedwick rejected
suggestions from both that she had been the one responsible for the
crimes while he should receive leniency.
=93I think Mr. Hayes has done more harm than he realizes to this
community and his church,=94 Sedwick said.
The Hayeses will likely be asked to report to prison within four to
six weeks, Sedwick estimated. He recommended that prison system
officials send Chris Hayes, who a psychiatrist said has suffered from
depression, to a jail in Spokane, Wash. to keep her close to Alaska.
A jury convicted the former three-term city mayor in February of
working with his wife to siphon close to $450,000 from the grants.
Federal investigators had traced the money to personal purchases and
to an over-budget construction project at a church =97 where Jim Hayes
served as pastor =97 across the street from Chris Hayes=92 tutoring
center, which had originally received the grants.
from:
http://www.newsminer.com/news/2008/may/02/hayeses-sentenced-jim-5-12-chris-3=
-years/
my comments:
I knew Jim Hayes when he worked for the Attorney General's Office. He
is a good man. He did many good things for Fairbanks as Mayor, too. I
think he should be pardoned by President Bush and am writing a letter
for that. $450,000 is miniscule compared to what goes on in government
and in war. I ask any of you this; did Jim Hayes and his wife do any
real evil? Did they hurt anyone? They were victims of mismanagement of
funds, something that all of us have done at one time or another. I
simply do not see the punishment fitting the crime. I think also if
the Hayes had the money to hire a very good attorney they would have
been found not guilty and set free. But they are black and poor and
have received a severe punishment for a relatively insignificant
crime.
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