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LaBrake facing 9-year sentence; wife, 5 years

At sentencing Friday, attorneys will ask that the LaBrakes be allowed to serve staggered sentences because of child care needs.

By DONG-PHUONG NGUYEN and JEFF TESTERMAN
Published February 22, 2005

TAMPA - Former city of Tampa housing director Steve LaBrake could face about nine years in prison when he is sentenced in a federal corruption case Friday, according to his attorney.

Sentencing guidelines also call for LaBrake's wife, Lynne LaBrake, to receive about five years for her role in the bribery scandal, attorney Patrick Doherty said Monday after reviewing a presentencing report from the federal probation department.

Attorneys for the LaBrakes hope that Judge Richard Lazzara will be lenient because the LaBrakes have a 3-year-old son and Lynne LaBrake has a 13-year-old daughter from a previous marriage.

They will be asking for staggered sentences for the couple, Doherty said.

"If at all possible, (Lynne LaBrake's lawyer) and I are hoping ... somebody is always available to take care of the child in question so there is some continuity of care," Doherty said.

"Typically, I think the wife should serve her sentence, and the hope would be the sentence would be sufficiently short, that it's doable, and get out and take care of the child and the husband would start his."

In December, the LaBrakes each were found guilty of more than 25 counts - conspiracy, wire fraud and more than two dozen charges of accepting bribes and gratuities. A jury also convicted Chester Luney, the former head of the Tampa-Hillsborough Action Plan, a nonprofit charity that received many home building contracts from LaBrake's office.

The allegations centered mostly on a 4,200-square-foot luxury home that Ryan Construction built for the LaBrakes at a cut rate in 2001. At the time, Mrs. LaBrake was known as Lynne McCarter; she worked for LaBrake at the city and was also his girlfriend.

The LaBrakes were accused of taking a series of bribes and favors from Luney and others. In turn, LaBrake steered millions in U.S. Housing and Urban Development contracts to Luney's THAP and Ryan Construction.

Luney and the owner of Ryan Construction, Dean Ryan, are also scheduled to be sentenced Friday. Ryan cut a deal with the government and testified against the LaBrakes. According to papers filed in federal court this month, prosecutors asked that a judge sentence Ryan to 15 months in prison in exchange for his help.

Luney, meanwhile, faces between 61/2 and eight years, according to the presentence report, Doherty said.

Steve LaBrake, 53, faces a stiffer sentence than the others because he played the lead role in the scandal and because he has a criminal record. LaBrake pleaded guilty in 2003 for attacking his wife's ex-husband during an argument over child support.

"Steve has the fact that he poked the ex, and he was the person in the position of trust," Doherty said. "(The battery) is all coming back to haunt him."

As for the idea of staggering sentences, John Fitzgibbons, a former federal prosecutor and a defense attorney who is not involved in the LaBrake case, said that he doesn't blame the LaBrakes' lawyers for trying, but that it is "highly unusual" for a judge to agree.

In the high-profile Enron case, Lea Fastow, the wife of former Enron chief financial officer Andrew Fastow, originally made a deal with prosecutors that would have given her five months in prison in the hopes she could be home with their children before her husband served his longer sentence. But a judge balked at the terms. She was eventually sentenced to a year.

"I can't see a judge allowing someone to delay reporting for several years," Fitzgibbons said.

If Steve LaBrake were allowed to report to prison after his wife got out, a judge could place restrictions on him, such as ordering the use of an ankle monitor or limiting his travel, Fitzgibbons said.

Part of what drives the sentences will be the dollar amount of the loss in the case and how much the defendants gained by their acts. According to Doherty, the probation report concluded that the "summary of payment" made during the course of criminal activity or scheme was valued at $364,000. The summary of benefits received by the payer of the bribe is $142,000 and the loss to the city of Tampa was $262,000.

Doherty said sentencing is complicated by the fact that loss figures in this case are difficult to assess. The judge will need to assign an amount on some transactions, he said.

For example, while applying for a home loan, the LaBrakes were accused of transferring a Toyota 4Runner to Luney, who was to have taken over payments and gotten the vehicle.

The LaBrakes didn't receive any money for that transaction, but instead got the right to remove the 4Runner from their list of debts.

The judge will have to decide how much value the LaBrakes gained in writing off the car debt, Doherty said.

"We're all over the place," said Frank Louderback, Lynne LaBrake's attorney, of the figures. "The judge is going to have to make final determinations. Even with that, once the guidelines are determined, judges are no longer bound to sentence within the guidelines."

A recent Supreme Court ruling loosened restrictions on federal judges relating to sentencing guidelines. Fitzgibbons said the LaBrakes' case will be one of the first locally since the ruling.

"It's going to be interesting to see how the judge is going to sentence them," he said.

Doherty said Steve LaBrake "is holding up as well as can be expected."

LaBrake, who has in the past granted media interviews and even invited reporters into the Corona Avenue home that started it all, was angry when contacted by a reporter Monday.

"You should be ashamed of yourself," he said when reached on his cellular phone. "You don't believe in privacy at all, do you? You should be ashamed."

The LaBrakes lost their luxury home and had been living in a much more modest house in South Tampa.

Monday, a box of white plastic hangers sat in a box outside the front door, yard sale signs were propped against a wall and a child's plastic swing hung from a tree in the front yard.

Another LaBrake house that played a role in the saga is about to go up for sale.

Last month, a judge signed a foreclosure judgment against Lynne LaBrake after she was unable to keep up the payments on a home at 10834 Peppersong Drive, a Riverview property that figured into the bribery charges against the LaBrakes and Luney.

The home will be sold at a courthouse auction Friday - the same date as the sentencing.

[Last modified February 22, 2005, 05:01:31]