Presson to Spend No Time in Jail for Tax Evasion : Sentencing: The former Orange Unified School District administrator linked to a kickback scheme gets six months in a halfway house and probation for filing false returns.

Former Orange Unified School District administrator Steven L. Presson, whose connection with a kickback scheme rocked the district, was sentenced in federal court Monday to six months in a halfway house and three years’ probation for filing false income tax returns.

The former maintenance officer was convicted last November on two felony counts of failing to report $69,000 in income. Prosecutors had argued that Presson acquired the money in reported kickbacks for funneling school district business to a selected construction company.

U.S. District Judge Terry J. Hatter on Monday called Presson’s crimes a “moral loss” to the children of the school district.

“You’ve been a wonderful father but cheated a lot of other children,” Hatter said during Presson’s sentencing. “I think it is questionable indeed whether you are taking full responsibility for what you have done.”

Hatter added that because he did not believe Presson to be a “totally bad person,” he issued a sentence that would allow him to pay the money he owes in back taxes.

Presson faced a maximum sentence of three years in prison and a $100,000 fine for each of the two counts of filing false returns. He will serve six months of a two-year suspended sentence and three years’ probation.

The sentence did not follow the recommendation of Assistant U.S. Atty. Michael Reese Davis, who asked that Presson get the maximum sentence of six years in prison. Defense attorney Marcia Brewer requested that Presson serve no time so that he could pay his tax debt.

In a statement to the court, Brewer contended that it was “not fair to characterize (Presson) as a major criminal.” She said that Presson simply “got off on the wrong road somehow and did some wrong things.”

But Davis said that Presson committed fraud while he was in a position of trust at the school district and that he felt no remorse.

“He’s trying to fool everyone, and he doesn’t want to pay for the crimes he committed,” Davis said.

Presson, dressed in a blue-gray suit, stood next to his attorney with his hands folded before him as the lawyers made their statements. After the attorneys’ statements, he was allowed to address the court.

“I made inexplicable decisions,” Presson said. “Things that should not have occurred. . . . I would like the opportunity to make up for the things I have done wrong from a financial standpoint. . . . I am hoping I will be able to pull things back together and start over again.”

Presson was ordered to report to a community correctional center in Florida, where he now lives, by April 17. Such facilities allow prisoners to leave the grounds to work.

Last July, Presson was also convicted on seven counts of embezzlement and conspiracy, including five felony charges, in Orange County Superior Court. He was ordered to pay $9,900 in restitution to the school district and received a suspended sentence of one year in Orange County Jail and three years’ unsupervised probation.

Two contractors in the case, Ronald Brock and William A. Gustafson, were convicted in April on five counts of embezzlement and conspiracy, including three felony charges. They received similar jail sentences but were not required to pay any fines.