Federal Court Cocaine Case : Penn’s Father Draws 12-Year Sentence

Thomas Lee Penn, the father of Sagon Penn, was sentenced Monday to 12 years, 7 months in federal prison for his role in a cocaine scheme that was broken up by federal agents in January.

Sagon Penn, who was acquitted after fatally shooting a police officer and wounding another officer and a civilian ride-along in 1985, was not among the roughly 30 family members and friends who attended the sentencing of Thomas Penn and three co-defendants.

U. S. District Judge Leland C. Nielsen sentenced the elder Penn, who pleaded guilty to three counts of an 18-count indictment handed down by the federal grand jury earlier this year. Penn, 50, admitted possessing 3 kilograms of cocaine, attempting to manufacture crack cocaine and possessing crack for distribution within 1,000 feet of a school.

“I was involved in a crime, so I must do the time,” Penn told Nielsen at the sentencing hearing.

The judge also sentenced Penn to 10 years of probation after his release from prison.

Penn was called the “hub” of the cocaine operation by Assistant U.S. Atty. Edward P. Allard III and by attorneys for the three co-defendants. Allard said Penn was “a manager and a leader” of a cocaine ring that conspired to manufacture and distribute the potent form of cocaine known as crack.

Penn’s attorney, Judy Clarke, said that “money was the motivating force” driving Penn and that federal undercover investigators had urged him to become involved in manufacturing crack.

Penn’s son-in-law, Clyde Len Spears, 36, was sentenced to 10 years in prison; Chris Lamar Wright, 22, received a nine-year prison term, and Tracy Ray Davis, 22, was ordered to serve eight years, 1 month.