Re: Councilwoman Gets 37 Months For Bribery

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On 3/15/10, Sharon wrote:
> http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2010/03/11/ex_det
> roit_councilwoman_gets_37_months_for_bribery/

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/34527.html

Monica Conyers gets court-appointed attorney

Monica Conyers arrives at the Theodore Levin Federal
Courthouse in downtown Detroit for her sentencing on her
bribery conviction on Wednesday.

House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers’ wife can’t pay for an
attorney and will be provided a government-appointed lawyer
as she appeals a federal bribery charge, a judge said
Tuesday.

The decision to provide Monica Conyers plea with a court-
appointed lawyer is just the latest twist in a long-running
saga in which she was convicted of bribery and sentenced to
37 months in prison for allegedly accepting bribes from a
company that had business in front of the Detroit City
Council when she was its president. She plead guilty, mulled
withdrawing the plea and vowed to appeal the conviction about
a week ago.

The financial information available to the judge in Michigan
showed “an inability to pay for an attorney” and the judge
had a detailed look at Mrs. Conyers financial resources,
according to a spokesman.

“Mrs. Conyers was on her own, so to speak, as to such
resources,” said Rod Hansen, a media information office for
the federal court in Michigan. “Further inquiry was not
appropriate and would’ve intruded on a private matter.”

John Conyers, who remains atop the powerful judiciary
committee, is paid $174,000 each year. He has been in
Congress since 1965, but only Monica Conyers’ ability to pay
the attorney is taken into consideration when a judge
appoints an attorney.

A spokeswoman for Conyers did not have an immediate response
if Mr. Conyers was unwilling to pay for an attorney.