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Michael Shane Minich was sentenced June 30 to 12 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to four counts that he stole nearly $3,000 from the wallets of Latino motorists during fake traffic stops.
He was scheduled to enter Leavenworth Penitentiary on Aug. 23.
While no one at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Oxford was available for an explanation about the appeal, Lee County Sheriff Jim Johnson said Monday he was told that Minich’s possible prison time was calculated incorrectly in his mandatory pre-sentence report written by the U.S. Probation Service.
District Judge Sharion Aycock gave Minich what she believed to be the maximum prison term, when possibly it should have been longer, the sheriff said.
Minich was sentenced to four 12-month terms, to be served at the same time. He also was ordered to repay his victims.
“I believe they’ve appealed so that the case can come back to Judge Aycock for a re-sentence,” Johnson noted.
When Aycock sentenced Minich, 35, she told him she was giving him as long a sentence as she could.
Minich admitted that four times, “under the color of law,” he violated people’s constitutional right to protection from illegal search and seizure.
Aycock told him that his uniformed presence, with a weapon, was a serious breach of what the public expects of its law enforcement officers.
The federal appeal will go to the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans for a decision.
The problem here is the inept government employees in the US Probation system and the Judges that sit. They "under color of law" act just a negligent as the deputy in that they toy with peoples lives without ever really understanding their own responsibility. When they make mistakes they are not held accountable as other citizens or civilian employees would.
But then he was allowed to plead to MISDEMEANOR charges, so it doesn't surprise me that it didn't raise a red flag with the judge.
The judge was quoted at the time saying that they were giving him the maximum sentence, 12-months on each of the 4 counts to be served concurrently.
The screw up was by the US Probabtion Service and the people who should have caught this mistake before it ever went to the judge is the US Attorney's office.
Judges often go by the "deal" stuck by the prosecutors when determining the sentencing.
This deputy was given a "deal" and allowed to plead to misdemeanors and so she went by the sentencing guidelines given her in the plea deal.
The travesty in all of this is that he was allowed to plead to misdemeanors at all. He'll probably be able to get those expunged from his record after serving his time and paying his restitution and could even be re-certified as a police officer.
If he'd been forced to plead to felonies he wouldn't have been able to get them expunged and thus would probably never wear a badge again.
But because he was allowed to plead to misdemeanors, it's conceivable that he could wear a badge again at some point. And that's a travesty.
Aycock is not new to the bench. Her experience should have raised a flag in this.
That said, I in no way condone the Deputy's actions. However I will say he was sentenced, he did not appeal and its not his fault for the actions of the prosecution and Judge......absent purposeful misconduct on their behalf.
You may be looking at the wrong side of the fence for the answer what happened.
I am glad that the prosecutors caught this trick and called them on it. I would hate to be that deputy or his lawyer when they have to go back in front of that same Judge. I'll bet the Judge will be some kind of mad and throw the book at both of them.
Maybe the lawyer will get some jail time if the case goes back before Judge Aycock.