[CPProt.net] Men get 7 years in prison for Transy book theft

[MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)]

 Men get 7 years in prison for Transy book theft

By Beth Musgrave

HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER


Four Lexington men who pleaded guilty earlier this year to robbing the
Transylvania University special collections library will spend the next
seven years in a federal prison, a judge ruled today.

After a more than nine-hour sentencing hearing, U.S. District Court Judge
Jennifer Coffman sentenced Eric Borsuk, Spencer W. Reinhard, Charles T.
Allen II and Warren C. Lipka to 87 months in prison - the least amount of
time recommended under the federal sentencing guidelines.

The federal guidelines are used to calculate a sentence based on the charges
and aggravating factors, including the stolen books' worth and whether the
men used a dangerous weapon to commit the crime.

Debate over the value of the books and whether a stunning device used on
special collections librarian B. J. Gooch was a dangerous weapon took up the
bulk of the hearing. The four men stole sketches by naturalist John James
Audubon, a first edition of Charles Darwin's On Origin of Species and two
rare and ancient manuscripts on Dec. 17, 2004, and later tried to sell them
to Christie's, the auction house in New York.

The four men will have to report to a yet-to-be designated federal prison on
Jan. 16, 2005. Under the federal system, the men will have to serve 85
percent of the 87 months, or at least six years. Lipka, Reinhard, Allen II
and Borsuk pleaded guilty to charges of robbery, conspiracy and theft of
major art works earlier this year. Two of the men used a stun device on
Gooch, tied her up, blindfolded her and then stole the books. 

Federal prosecutors had recommended sentences of 11 to 14 years for each
man. Defense lawyers argued that the men should receive much less.

Judge Coffman heard testimony from an electronics engineer who testified
that the stun device the men claimed to have used on Gooch would not cause
serious injury and was not a dangerous weapon.

John Barnes, an expert hired by the defense, said he tried the stun pen on
himself. "It will make you jump," Barnes said. "It stung." But Barnes said
the only way the pen could be considered a dangerous weapon is "if you
jammed it in someone's eye."

But prosecutors question whether the pen was used as claimed - or if one of
four stun guns found at the home of three of the men - was used on Gooch.
Stun guns subdue people with a jolt of electricity. Defense lawyers say the
men ditched the stun pen after the robbery. 
 


http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/13344324.htm