Ed Jew sentenced to more than 5 years in jail
By: Joshua Sabatini
April 3, 2009
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| (Examiner file photo) |
SAN FRANCISCO — Former Supervisor Ed Jew was sentenced today to 64 months behind bars after pleading guilty to extorting $80,000 in cash from local business owners. He will have to surrender on July 1 to serve the sentence.
Jew pleaded guilty in October to soliciting cash bribes from owners of Quickly tapioca-drink shops in exchange for promising to help them obtain city permits to operate legally. Jew was under FBI surveillance when he accepted $40,000 in bills marked by federal agents, as a partial payment from the business owners.
Federal prosecutors asked for a 57-month sentence for the charges of mail fraud, bribery and extortion. Jew's attorney Stuart Hanlon argued for a sentence of a year and one day. Under federal law, one must serve 85 percent of the time sentenced.
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston sentenced Jew this morning in federal court.
On Tuesday, Hanlon filed a legal argument saying Jew deserved leniency during the sentencing because of brain damage he has suffered since age 8, when he was struck by a motorcycle and underwent brain surgery. Hanlon also said that Jew was not motivated by greed, but instead had intended to use the money to pay for needs in the Sunset district, which he represented.
During an FBI raid of Jew's properties, agents found $10,000 of the marked bills in Jew's Burlingame house, wrapped in foil and stored in the refrigerator.
It is difficult to believe that the defendant committed these crimes because of a decades-old brain injury that had apparently no manifestations in his otherwise successful life until this case," federal prosecutors said in response to Hanlon's argument for leniency.
They also said that there was no evidence to suggest Jew intended to donate the money.
In a separate legal proceeding, Jew pleaded guilty in San Francisco Superior Court in November to lying on election-related documents about where he lived when he ran for office. He is due to be sentenced in that case on April 17.
Jew resigned from office in January 2008 as part of a settlement agreement in a third legal proceeding accusing him of violating city residency requirements for holding office.
