Editorial: Judge was too lenient

Monday, Oct. 4, 2004 | 9:09 a.m.

In May a Clark County jury convicted 65-year-old Amy Green of swindling $1.5 million from her infirm and elderly neighbor. Green was convicted of seven counts of felony exploitation of an elderly person. The Parole and Probation Department recommended that District Judge Lee Gates sentence Green to prison for her crimes. Chief Deputy District Attorney Erik Jorgensen, the prosecutor in the case, asked Gates to follow that recommendation, saying that Green "systematically stole $1.5 million and has only spent 17 days in jail." Instead, based on logic that defies our understanding, Gates sentenced Green to four years of probation.

Gates said there was no evidence that Green had physically abused 85-year-old Esther Governale, her neighbor. Gates also said Green had no prior convictions. These are flimsy reasons, in our view, for letting someone convicted of stealing that much money off with probation. After all, this is a state where you can be sentenced to a year or more in prison for possessing an ounce of marijuana. Surely stealing $1.5 million from an ailing woman is an offense of equal gravity.

Governale, who died in 2003, was in an assisted living center at the time her life savings were drained by Green. Governale had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and her husband, Charles, had died in 2001. Green said it had been Charles' dying wish to have her take care of his wife. It was shortly after his death that Governale's life savings began being transferred by Green into her own mutual fund portfolio.

Gates did order Green to pay restitution in addition to serving her probation, and he also ordered that she undergo counseling and never again serve as a legal guardian or caretaker of an elderly person. Nevertheless, his sentence sends the message that exploiting a senior citizen is worth a try. If you're caught, the worst that will happen is that you break even, is how others tempted to steal might view it.

The judge should have followed the sensible advice he received and sentenced Green to a prison term.