Judge Timothy Corrigan has denied former U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown's request for a delay in her sentencing hearing, according to our News4Jax partner.
Brown, a 12-term congresswoman from Jacksonville, was convicted on 18 federal mail, wire and tax fraud charges in May for taking money raised for the One Door for Education Foundation, and lying on her taxes and congressional financial disclosure forms. Prosecutors convinced a jury that Brown used the unregistered charity as a personal slush fund.
Brown is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 16 after Corrigan shot down a motion from her attorney, James Smith, asking for a four-month delay because some of the documents he planned to use to establish Brown's character were destroyed by flooding in Hurricane Irma.
“While we are disappointed with the judge's decision we will continue to press forward and prepare for sentencing," Smith said.
In denying the delay request, Corrigan wrote, “(The) defendant has not articulated why a continuance of 'at least four months' is justified. While the court is sympathetic to Ms. Brown’s circumstances following the hurricane, it is in the interest of justice for the sentencing to go forward as scheduled.”
If Brown demonstrates at the hearing that there’s some document or information that she was unable to obtain, the court will decide then whether to allow additional time to produce it, Corrigan said.
