This morning, in a brief half hour hearing in a Trenton courtroom, federal District Judge Joel A. Pisano sentenced Lisa Goetz to 5 years of probation with special conditions, no fine, and must pay back $2.5 million in restitution. All charges were dropped except for count #4 (conspiracy to commit mail fraud).
The brief summary of the sentencing hearing: vrs-goetz-sentencing-summary
I contacted prosecutor Robert A. Zink and Ms. Goetz’s defense attorney, Charles Waldron, sseeking public comment. If or when I receive one from either person, I will update this blog post with it.
As a side note, Larry Berke’s prison reporting date was recently changed from Monday January 30, 2012 to February 20, 2012. Dary Berke’s sentencing hearing was rescheduled to March 21, 2012 at 11am Eastern in Trenton. David Simmons’s sentencing hearing was rescheduled to March 21, 2012 at 10:30am Eastern. (All sentencing hearings are done in Trenton for the VRS cases.)
The court has not yet published the sentencing order for Ms. Goetz so I don’t yet know any other in-depth information such as special conditions for probation, but will post it when I see it and can upload it here in an update to this post.
However, iDeafNews presented by the capable Seth Gerlis, appears to have been present at the hearing today and has disclosed more details. Thanks, iDaafNews!
According to iDeafNews hosted by Seth Gerlis, he mentioned in Facebook while on live text that Lisa Goetz received 5 year probation with one year home confinement as for special condition similar to Kim Hawkins. More details are being posted in his public iDeafNews Facebook page. I suspected that he is already in Trenton, NJ to distribute news.
I agree it does sound like they were in Trenton for the hearing. If so, many thanks to Seth Gerlis and the iDeafNews crew who does a valuable public service for the Deaf community, including the VRS case reporting.
Just curious, Lisa and Larry receive the SSA check every month. Will they stop? SSA is a part of government…
That’s an excellent question! Straight from the SSA and federal law:
1) It seems clear that Larry Berke’s SSA checks will stop while he is in prison. After all, the taxpayers are paying for his housing, meals, and general welfare during his incarceration so that makes sense. See:
https://secure.ssa.gov/poms.nsf/lnx/0202607790
(It says the federal Bureau of Prisons — BOP — will share incoming inmate information with the Social Security Administration (SSA) to help them figure out who to stop SSA-related checks for.)
2) I think Ms. Goetz will be able to continue to receive hwr checks while on probation because the main intent of the law is to stop it for anyone forcibly incarcerated; probation generally doesn’t count.
I am not certain or familiar with this particular area; other commenters might have more information. A very good question! Keep on asking more!
Clercjr is correct. In a totally different matter, in a plea bargaining agreement, in exchange for not going to jail for judge’s suggested sentencing for five months, A deaf friend got a three or five year probation and got a alcohol bracelet to wear during exact the same amount of time because he did not want to lose the ssa income. We thought he was nuts until he explained why he took the plea bargain. So Lisa will be fine.
This is an interesting predicament each defendant and the Federal government are in with SSA. I did some research on the issue and have found that the SSA will suspend all payments while someone is in a public instituion like a hospital, nursing home, prison or jail. The SSA has a Prerelease Procedure Program specifically designed to get inmates signed up for SSI or food stamps and to prevent the delay of benefits once they have been released. This is to help prevent post-release homelessness and to reduce recidivism rates. http://www.socialsecurity.gov/ssi/spotlights/spot-prerelease.htm
I did also read that the SSA has the right to suspend payment to a person if they are a fugitive or in a parole violation. http://www.socialsecurity.gov/budget/2008cjapp.pdf
Thanks, Roberta and Ashley! Great information and makes sense.
Social security benefits should not be available to any of these crooks, now or during prison or after. Berke has many properties in DC and AZ, probably bought with taxpayers money. They can stop looking for free rides, and take any job they can find, even washing dishes. Too bad. Being deaf doesn’t make it ok to be a crook. Do the crime, do the time,.and suffer the consequences as well. I am sick of people like that constantly making the deaf community look bad. Better yet, lock em up and throw key away!