A federal judge refused to delay the surrender of former Cicero Town President Betty Loren-Maltese and ordered her to report to a California minimum-security prison by noon Friday to begin serving an 8-year term for racketeering.
In court Wednesday, U.S. District Senior Judge John F. Grady blasted Loren-Maltese for spending hundreds of hours in Las Vegas casinos since her conviction in August rather than making arrangements for the care of her 5-year-old daughter, Ashleigh.
“She gambled on [more time] the way she has gambled in other ways,” Grady said before denying her request to remain free until April 1, the date she originally was expected to start her sentence. Last week, Grady ordered Loren-Maltese to surrender Jan. 31 after federal prosecutors filed evidence showing that she was gambling away money the government wants to seize.
Grady ruled that an early imprisonment of Loren-Maltese, who was in Las Vegas on Wednesday, was the best way to keep her from gambling.
Loren-Maltese’s attorney, Nathan Z. Dershowitz, argued Wednesday that the delay in handling her daughter’s affairs was reasonable in light of an appeal that she remain free on bail, which was rejected Tuesday.
Grady expressed regret that his decision would be painful for Loren-Maltese’s daughter, stating that children are often victimized when parents go to prison.
“This case is not that unusual in that regard. In fact, Ashleigh’s circumstances are more fortunate than other children. She will live in relative happiness and be cared for by a loving grandmother,” Grady said.
He later said that Loren-Maltese showed poor judgment in the handling of her daughter. “I don’t know how long it takes to tell a young child that a parent is going away for a long time,” Grady said. “It does not seem reasonable to me that it should take five months to begin thinking about it.”
Federal prosecutors filed court documents Tuesday pointing to gambling records from two Las Vegas casinos indicating that Loren-Maltese was spending much of her free time in casinos. From Sept. 27 to Nov. 9, Loren-Maltese spent 297 hours gambling and won multiple jackpots of more than $1,200 as recently as Jan. 21.
Dershowitz said the gambling stopped on that date and that before then Loren-Maltese gambled only when Ashleigh was in school or was sleeping. He said that Loren-Maltese had contacted a psychiatrist for advice on how to break the news of her imprisonment to her daughter.
“She was hoping to be with Ashleigh on her sixth birthday in March,” Dershowitz told the judge. After learning the decision, Dershowitz said: “We were hoping for a little more compassion.”
Dershowitz said he will now focus on appealing her corruption conviction.
Loren-Maltese has been ordered to surrender at the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, Calif., south of San Francisco. The prison is on 96 acres within Camp Parks, an Army Reserve base, and is about 500 miles from Loren-Maltese’s Las Vegas home.
The prison consists of three facilities: a minimum-security camp, a low-level security prison for women and a detention center for men. Loren-Maltese will be held with about 280 other women whose offenses range from drug charges to white collar crime.
Prisoners in the camp live in dormitory-style housing with three or four roommates, said Sandra Hijar, a spokeswoman for the Federal Correctional Institution. They sleep in bunk beds, store personal items in lockers and are allowed visitors on an approved list on Fridays, weekends and federal holidays.
Prisoners attend an orientation during the first 30 days at the facility, and unless medically unable, begin work at the prison ranging from food service to landscaping. They work seven hours a day, five days a week for a minimum of 12 cents an hour, and may attend religious, recreational and academic classes.
Prisoners are provided a uniform and are limited to a few possessions, including prescription eyeglasses, personal identification and simple wedding bands valued under $100, said Hijar. Since no inmate is allowed to keep cash, every prisoner has an inmate account where the money they earn in prison is deposited.
