Frugal Café Blog Zone

Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on March 12, 2010

Guilty: Democrat City Councilwoman and wife of a US congressman, Monica Conyers pleaded guilty to bribery charges, becoming yet another Detroit politician taken down by scandal and marking a victory for federal prosecutors in their nearly 2-year investigation into city corruption; Monica exploded when she was sentenced to a prison term yesterday

A prize goes to anyone who can find the word “Democrat” in the following Detroit Free Press news article about convicted corruptocrat Monica Conyers.

From Detroit Free Press, A fuming Monica Conyers seeks appeal:

After months of silence, the combative and unpredictable Monica Conyers erupted during her sentencing in federal court Wednesday: first, repeatedly asking to withdraw her guilty plea, then exclaiming she wasn’t going to jail for something she didn’t do.

“I’m not going to be made a scapegoat for other people,” the ex-Detroit councilwoman said in a raised voice. But U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn was unmoved. He sentenced her to 37 months in prison and two years of probation.

Her attorney, Steven Fishman, told Cohn the news media has pounded Conyers “like a piñata.” Acknowledging ongoing corruption investigations, Fishman said his client “should not be a poster child for all that.”

Sorry, Monica, you don’t get any “piñata” sympathy from me. If I made a “Monica Conyers” joke, would anyone outside of Michigan or those who watch FOX News know who I was talking about? The liberal media has treated you like a spoiled-brat, undeserving little princess.

Walk around in former Gov. Sarah Palin’s shoes for a few months, Monica baby, and then we’ll talk about bias and mistreatment by the press. Oh, wait… YOU COMMITTED A FEDERAL CRIME and Sarah Palin didn’t. The talk’s off, shrew. You did the crime, you aren’t above it all to avoid paying the price.

Conyers is married to U.S. Rep. John “Why Bother Reading the Health Care Bill?” Conyers. For an excellent exposé on Mr. and Mrs. Conyers, read Michelle Malkin’s essay compilation, Culture of corruption: Conyers edition.

Back to the Free Detroit Press piece:

Conyers, who is married to U.S. Rep. John Conyers — who was not in court and did not comment — pleaded guilty last summer for her role in a bribery scheme involving a $1.2-billion sludge hauling contract between the city and Texas-based Synagro Technologies.

Conyers is to report to prison July 1.

But, later Wednesday, Conyers filed a notice to appeal and was appointed representation by the Federal Defender’s Office.

Translation: American taxpayers, not just those in Detroit, will pay for her attorney for her appeal. Although, Conyers and her husband are millionaires. But they’re DEMOCRAT millionaires, dontcha know.

“I just don’t feel that I should go to jail for something that I didn’t do,” she said. “And it’s been said that you are going to make an example out of me, and the news media has been putting pressure on you to send me to jail, and I just don’t feel that’s appropriate.”

She then invoked her husband and her two sons.

“My husband is an older man, and my son is 14, and I have done everything this court asked me to do,” she said. “You asked me to quit my job. I did. You asked me to stay off television. I did. … You asked me to see a psychologist. I did.”

Officials at the congressman’s office said they had no comment Wednesday evening.

By the way, are you still looking for the word “Democrat” in this Free Detroit Press story?

By the end of the hour-long hearing, Monica Conyers said she was guilty of extortion but not bribery and had her own tape recordings that could exonerate her. She also asked why another defendant in the ongoing federal probe, Karl Kado, got only probation last week.

Cohn refused to let Conyers change her guilty plea in the Synagro sludge scandal. He decided not to consider the separate alleged crimes played out in wiretapped phone recordings during the trial of her former chief of staff, Sam Riddle, which ended last month in a hung jury.

The judge said Conyers’ conduct in office “fell woefully short of what the people of Detroit were entitled to when they elected her to the City Council.”

If you’ve got that “D” after your name and you’re married to a Democrat US congressman, it’s royalty treatment from the biased liberal press… even for soon-to-be convicts like Monica Conyers. And no, the word “Democrat” doesn’t appear in the article above. It doesn’t in either of the articles below. Now, if Monica had been a Republican, you know her political affiliation would have been in every headline.

From MyFoxDetroit, Ex-Detroit Councilwoman Monica Conyers Gets 37 Months in Prison:

As guards cleared the packed courtroom, Monica Conyers yelled that she planned to appeal. The wife of U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., wanted to withdraw her guilty plea, suggesting she was the victim of “badgering” last year when she admitted taking cash to support a Houston company’s sludge contract with the city.

But U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn, reviewing a transcript of the June hearing, said Conyers had denied any coercion and voluntarily pleaded guilty to conspiracy.

Conyers, 45, is the biggest catch so far in the FBI’s wide-ranging investigation of corruption in Detroit city government. Nine people have pleaded guilty, including two former directors of the downtown convention center, and prosecutors have promised more charges are coming.

“Bribery is a betrayal of trust,” Cohn told Conyers after announcing a 37-month prison term for her “egregious” crime. She quit the council after pleading guilty in June.

Conyers’ plea deal was limited to taking bribes to support a contract with Synagro worth $47 million a year. But the recent trial of her former aide, Sam Riddle, exposed a series of alleged schemes involving others making payoffs to do business at city hall.

Prosecutors said Riddle and Conyers collected $69,500 by shaking people down and urged Cohn to consider the alleged crimes when sentencing her. Defense lawyer Steve Fishman firmly objected and demanded a separate hearing.

Conyers declared, “I’m not going to jail for something I didn’t do.”

Cohn had handled the Riddle trial and said he agreed with prosecutors that the evidence was relevant. Considering it in the sentencing would have boosted Conyers’ guidelines and given the judge justification to send her to prison for as long as five years. But Cohn changed his mind — and she got a break.

“The sentence will be based solely on conviction,” Cohn said.

Earlier this year, jurors at the Riddle trial heard secretly taped phone calls in which he and Conyers discussed money, bank deposits and how to split cash.

From WXYZ.com Action News, Kenyatta Says Conyers Sentence Too Light:

DETROIT (WXYZ) – Detroit City Council member Kwame Kenyatta feels that his former colleague, Monica Conyers, got off light when a federal judge sentenced her to 37 months in jail.

Kenyatta released the following statement about Conyers’ sentence Thursday:

The sentencing of former Detroit City Council President Monica Conyers along with the sentencing of other key aides of the former Kilpatrick administration, former Conyers employee Sam Riddle and the sentencing of Rayford Jackson reads like the introduction to a book that has yet to be read.

I believe that the judge was too lenient in his sentencing of Monica Conyers in light of the significance of her role as an elected official who ultimately served as President of City Council who was first in line to be mayor. She was much more prominent than a consultant, contractor or aide.

Furthermore, Monica Conyers was the second highest vote getter on Detroit City Council. Within this important position she violated the trust of the people and betrayed their confidence in the oath that she took.

She also put her fellow colleagues on Council who elected her to serve on the pension board, which gave her financial oversight of retirees’ savings and investments, in an untenable position.

With this in mind, I believe that the message sent through the sentence should and could have been stronger.

From Metro Detroit MLive, Ex-Detroit Councilwoman Monica Conyers files appeal in wake of prison sentence:

…Her appeal is a long shot however, as the plea deal she signed in June indicates that if she receives a sentence of five years or less she “waives any right to appeal her conviction or sentence.”

Conyers resigned from the Detroit City Council in June after admitting she accepted cash from Houston-based Synagro Technologies in exchange for her vote on a sludge-hauling contract with the city in 2007.

“I may be guilty of extortion, but I never took a bribe,” she told Cohn.

More reading:
Pat Dollard: Hmmmmm: John Conyers’ (D-MI) Wife Imprisoned For 3 Years For Accepting Bribes – Video Added

UPDATE, October 11, 2010… from Gateway Pundit, Radical Dem John Conyers Says Tea Party Is “Small and Dismissible”.

Categories: Government, Law & Constitution, Media & Communication, Social and Political Climate, Videos, Audio Files
Tags: bribery, Congress, Conyers Detroit, Councilwoman Conyers, Democrat, Detroit, extortion, House of Representatives, John Conyers, journalism bias, liberal, media bias, Michigan, Monica Conyers, Monica Conyers prison, prison, Rep. Conyers, Rep. John Conyers, video