Lighten Bob Ney's sentance?

[samplegirl]

Prosecutors urge leniency for Ney aide

ASSOCIATED PRESS


COLUMBUS - A one-time top aide to a jailed former congressman from Ohio deserves house arrest, not prison, because he cooperated with a federal influence-peddling probe involving his ex-boss and endured the congressman's wrath, prosecutors argued in court documents.

Neil Volz, 37, former chief of staff for Bob Ney, "endured harsh criticism, including abusive phone calls" from Ney when the congressman suspected he was assisting investigators, according to documents filed Thursday.

Volz faces a maximum of five years in prison and $250,000 in fines when he is sentenced next week on conspiracy charges.

Ney, a six-term Republican, is serving 2 1/2 years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy and making false statements, admitting he traded his influence for golf trips, campaign donations and other gifts arranged by once-influential lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his associates.

Volz took fewer gifts than other Ney aides while serving on Ney's staff, attorneys for the U.S. Justice Department argued.

They also said Volz's cooperation helped them obtain a guilty plea from former Ney aide Will Heaton and to secure the conviction of David Safavian, the former General Services Administration official who took improper gifts from Abramoff.

Volz, who left government to work for Abramoff, was accused of arranging for the congressman to personally resolve a passport dispute for the daughter of Russian energy executive Alexander Koulakovsky, an Abramoff client. Prosecutors said Volz and another lobbyist paid for a 2003 vacation Ney took in Lake George, N.Y.

Read more in later editions of The Blade and toledoblade.com

[samplegirl]

1. They only...

Bankrupted the Ohio treasury.

[cmd]

2. "endured harsh criticism, including abusive phone calls"

Big deal. Ney treated his constituents the same way. You wouldn't believe some of the calls Ney made to people who dared to question him.
He routinely belittled people in newspaper articles. Alcohol made him a brave little man.