‘Robin HUD’ Gets 46 Months for Stealing $6 Million From U.S.

Marilyn Louise Harrell, the former real estate agent dubbed “Robin HUD” who claimed she stole about $6 million from the Department of Housing and Urban Development to help the poor, was sentenced Friday to the maximum prison term of nearly four years.

U.S. District Judge Herbert Murray imposed the 46-month sentence at the request of Harrell, who federal officials had said stole more from the government than any other individual.

“I will ask you for the maximum term because I deserve it,” Harrell told the judge. “I have never said what I did was right. In fact, if a person steals 5 cents, then they should be done with whatever the court sees fit.”

In addition, Murray sentenced Harrell to three years of probation and 624 hours of community service and ordered her to pay $600,000 in restitution. She had pleaded guilty to stealing government property and filing a false tax return.

Despite Harrell’s comments, public defender Anthony Gallagher, who had asked for a 16-month sentence, said he intended to appeal the longer sentence. Harrell, 46, will not be eligible for parole.

“I think it’s fair and I’m delighted, which is what (Gallagher) told me not to say,” Harrell said after the hearing. “I asked for it because I deserve it.

“The money I took was not from a program that gave to the poor,” she said. “The money I took was from a program that put people on the street through foreclosures.”

As an escrow agent, Harrell collected money from the sale of properties purchased with HUD-guaranteed loans that had been foreclosed on. Harrell said lax management allowed her to divert the proceeds.

Prosecutors contended that only about $1 million of the $6.6 million that Harrell allegedly stole between 1985 and 1988 was spent on charitable causes.