Woman Bandit’s Sentence to Be Restudied : Jurisprudence: The judge had given the bank robber a lenient sentence, saying that she had fallen under the ‘Svengali’ influence of her boyfriend.

Veteran U.S. District Judge A. Andrew Hauk today will reconsider his controversial 1989 decision to give a light sentence to a young female bank robber after declaring that women are “soft touches” for clever men, “particularly if sex is involved.”

Long well-known for eccentric comments from the bench, Hauk refused to follow federal sentencing guidelines for 24-year-old Dannielle T. Mast because, he said, Mast had fallen under the “Svengali” spell of her boyfriend, Lonnie Jackson.

Under the guidelines, Mast would have received 57 to 71 months for participating in a string of five South Bay bank robberies. But during a hearing May 9, 1989, Hauk imposed a sentence of only two years for the former Oregon high school cheerleader whom the FBI had dubbed the “Miss America Bandit.”

In announcing his decision, Hauk, 78, stated in court that the U.S. Sentencing Commission had not taken into account the possibility of a man dominating a woman when promulgating the guidelines.

Hauk also said: “I have a hard time believing there weren’t drugs involved, arising as it did over there in Oakland, in the black surroundings. We can’t kid ourselves.”

Since that day, the substance of Hauk’s decision has been overshadowed by the style in which he rendered it. Indeed, several liberal organizations that normally might have supported light sentencing have joined forces with hard-nosed prosecutors in lambasting Hauk’s action.

Near the end of the hearing, the judge said “I’ve been extremely lenient” and indicated that he anticipated criticism both from feminists and the U.S. attorney’s office. “But I don’t mind criticism. It comes with the turf here as a judge.”

Hauk’s comments about the so-called Svengali relationship precipitated a firestorm of criticism, and federal prosecutors appealed his decision.

The California Women Lawyer’s organization called for his impeachment, stating in a letter to the chief judge of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that Hauk had on several instances manifested “sexist, racist and homophobic attitudes.”

Although the appeals court did not take disciplinary action against Hauk, it did reverse his decision on technical grounds--saying that Hauk had ignored Mast’s previous conviction of drunk driving in determining her sentence.

The appeals court did not address the Svengali issue when it sent the case back to him for re-imposition of sentence.

Hauk now has the task of deciding whether to send Mast back to prison. She was released after 18 months from the Federal Detention Center at Pleasanton last November.

Having finished a drug treatment program, Mast is now working as a secretary in Portland and living with her grandparents.

Her attorney, Philip Deitch, said Mast is saving money to purchase her own computer system so she can get into the computer services business.

A federal probation officer said Mast has demonstrated “a positive response to supervision” and has begun paying restitution to the banks that she robbed.

‘My God, what more can she do?” asked Deitch in an interview. He said Mast has lived up to the judge’s trust, a reference to another statement that Hauk made during the sentencing hearing:

“It seems to me this is a girl whose life could be saved and who could still be a great asset to her community, to her race, if you will, and I don’t like to get into that, but to the community and to her parents who I believe are fine people who must have sacrificed tremendously to give her the education they did.”

In papers filed last week, Deitch urged Hauk to uphold his original sentence and not send Mast back to prison. He said the judge could make a determination under the sentencing guidelines that Mast’s one drunk driving conviction “significantly overrepresents” her criminal history or the likelihood that she will commit further crimes, a key factor in determining her sentence.

But federal prosecutor Gregory Alarcon strenuously argued in a brief filed last week that Hauk must send Mast back to prison. He asked for a sentence in the middle range of the federal guidelines--about 64 months, minus the 18 months she has already served.

Alarcon said that under federal law Hauk could not ignore Mast’s drunk driving conviction in determining her sentence.

However, the bulk of his brief deals with the “Svengali” issue. In unusually blunt language, the brief calls Hauk’s “Svengali” theory “implausible and incredible.”

Moreover, the brief states that there was absolutely no evidence to support Hauk’s theory, even if it were plausible, particularly since Mast never said she was coerced to commit any of the robberies.

Alarcon’s brief also stresses that there was no testimony presented at trial that Mast had been subject to any coercion or duress by Jackson. “Not one shred of credible evidence was presented at the trial, or at any other proceeding to support” a defense of coercion or duress, according to his brief.

“Not once did a bank teller claim (during the trial) that Mast appeared to be unsure or nervous, or that she showed any other signs of being forced into committing the bank robberies,” Alarcon’s brief noted. “Further, Mast showed her criminal sophistication by using numerous disguises, a false name, and by enlisting” a friend to commit perjury for her at the trial, the brief adds.

He added that testimony at Mast’s December, 1988, trial showed that she acted alone in each of the robberies and would threaten bank tellers by telling them that she had a gun or show an object that appeared to be a gun.

“The court in resentencing Mast should carefully consider what evidence does exist rather than speculating as to what might have motivated Mast to violate the law,” the brief states.

Mast did not testify at the trial and told a probation officer that she was a victim of misidentification.

Jackson has a long criminal history, according to court documents, but was not charged in connection with any of these bank robberies.