Ex-NYC Top Cop Kerik Avoids Holiday Jail

Federal Judge Delays Sentencing Hearing for Former NYPD Commissioner Until February 2010

(AP)  Former New York City police Commissioner Bernard Kerik can get out of jail for the holidays, a federal court ruled Tuesday.

Kerik, who pleaded guilty to eight felonies last week, can remain out of jail until he is sentenced in February, federal Judge Stephen Robinson said.

Kerik left the federal courthouse in White Plains with his lawyers without speaking.

The judge imposed some conditions - home confinement, wearing an electronic monitoring device, and adding another $975,000 to the previous $500,000 bond, all secured by his house in Franklin Lakes, N.J. He would be allowed to visit his lawyers, accountants and a hospital emergency room if needed. However, the judge did not grant the former police commissioner's request to take his children to school.

"This is not home confinement, with morning strolls and afternoon strolls," Robinson said.

The judge warned Kerik that he was delaying the inevitable because "it's a mortal lock that there will be jail time at the end of this."

Kerik sat forward in his chair, looking eager, as the judge discussed his release. Hailed as a hero after the Sept. 11 attacks, Kerik avoided as many as three federal trials when he admitted Thursday that he lied about his associations while being considered for chief of Homeland Security.

He also pleaded guilty to lying on tax returns, a loan application and a questionnaire he filled out when he was seeking a separate U.S. government position. Under his plea bargain, he was not required to plead guilty to the main corruption charges against him.

Prosecutors suggested that Kerik's appropriate sentence would be 27 months to 33 months in prison, but the judge was not bound by that advice. He warned Kerik that the maximum sentence is 61 years. Kerik could also be fined.

The judge said he would consider Kerik's accomplishments when he sentences him.

Kerik was police commissioner when New York and Washington, D.C., were attacked in 2001. He was praised worldwide for his steely leadership. At the urging of his mentor, former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Kerik was nominated to the top Homeland Security post in 2004.

[Sloughfoot]

A real man, who has publicly soiled himself, would make a choice other then prison.

[babooph]

Like Rush with the "weight" for 30 years "MANDATORY" ,gets ZERO prison time-The Congo has a better justice system....US propaganda calls other nations corrupt!!!

Justice belongs to the moneyed.

[stn_sage]

Let's see...plead guilty to EIGHT felonies last week; including:
---lied about his associations while being considered for chief of Homeland Security
---lying on tax returns
---lying on a loan application
---lying on a questionnaire

His maximum sentence could be 61 years and a fine.

The judge says, in essence, 'don't expect any leniency'.

Then, he let's him GO HOME from now through February 10, 2010 FOR THE HOLIDAYS!!

SO...are we REALLY suppose to believe that Kerik is NOT going to get preferential treatment when sentenced...AFTER just being allowed to go home for the holidays for THREE MONTHS?!

It appears everyone at the federal level thinks the American public are morons! Good grief!

This judge will probably sentence him to 12 months in jail...suspended...give him a big kiss...and apologize to him for all the inconvenience that his prosecution may have cost him!

There's no such thing as equality of justice in the American court system.

[wyodutch]

Gee willikers... An up and coming guy like Bernie. Chief of Poe-Leece in the Rotton Apple... then swoops off to Iraq to reorganize the Iraqi poe-leece force for Presdent Bush... Then nominated to be Big Cheese at Homeland Security.
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Then what happens? He gets in trouble for a couple false tax returns and a little white lie here and there.
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Yeah.. Bernie "could" do 61 years... but we all know he'll be beck on the streets faster than you can holler "Jackie Robinson". After all... Bernie has connections... and in America... Justice belongs to the well connected.
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