Judge lets Harmon’s sentence stand

Jace Radke

Friday, April 1, 2005 | 9:14 a.m.

After reviewing the nearly five-year federal prison sentence given to former Assemblyman Harley L. Harmon, U.S. District Judge Philip Pro has decided not to shorten the punishment.

The mail fraud case was sent back to Pro by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals because the circuit court was unclear on whether Pro's sentence of 57 months should have included a penalty for perjury.

In order for perjury to be included the judge must determine that the defendant was false about material information and that he perjured himself willfully. In his original order the appeals court found that Pro was unclear on the willful part of equation.

"The court finds that the 57-month sentence imposed in defendant Harmon's case is reasonable," Pro states in a written order handed down Thursday. "The court also intended to find that defendant Harmon's testimony was willful."

Pro also ruled that Harmon's sentence is not affected by recent Supreme Court decisions, including U.S. v. Booker and U.S. v. Fanfan, two cases that made federal sentencing guidelines advisory instead of mandatory.

Harmon was originally sentenced in August 2003, following his conviction of 34 counts of mail fraud after being indicted in April 2001. Prosecutors alleged that millions of dollars of investors' money was lost through his company's loans to developers of two projects -- a mobile home park and a storage center -- between 1994 and December 1997.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Dan Schiess said that Harmon led investors to believe he was putting their money in safer first deeds of trust when they were actually in second, third and even worse positions on loans brokered by Harmon's mortgage company.

Money was also diverted from the investors' projects to projects that were in danger of being foreclosed. Interest payments and reports mailed to investors kept them in the dark about what Harmon was doing with their money, Schiess said.

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