Congresswoman’s Ex-Husband Gets Three-Year Prison Term

As his congresswoman ex-wife dabbed at her eyes, Joseph Waldholtz was sentenced to 37 months in prison Thursday for felonies that included a $3-million check-kiting scheme in her 1994 campaign.

“I’m relieved my long nightmare is over,” Rep. Enid Greene (R-Utah) said afterward. She wept openly during the court session, twisting a handkerchief as she listened to the judge chastise the man she divorced in June.

“This is a very sad day for me,” she said outside the courtroom. “It is the end of my marriage, the loss of a father to my daughter.” She said she felt the need to be there because it “closed a chapter in my life.”

The couple has one child, Elizabeth, about a year old.

Greene, a onetime rising star in the Republican Party, announced in March that she would not seek a second term. She was not accused of taking part in Waldholtz’s scheme.

The government had asked for a 33-month sentence, the maximum under federal sentencing guidelines. But at least four months of the sentence was imposed by U.S. District Judge Norma Holloway Johnson because Waldholtz continued to write bad checks and used heroin while awaiting sentencing.

Johnson said she would recommend that he serve his term in the federal institution in Allenwood, Pa., referred to by former inmates as a “country club” among prisons.

After he pleaded guilty in June to four felony counts, the 33-year-old Waldholtz was free on personal bond, agreeing to live with his father and stepmother in a Pittsburgh, Pa., suburb. A standard clause barred him from committing further crimes. In September, he was hauled back into court and was jailed by Johnson until Thursday’s court date.

Waldholtz said his misdeeds “will haunt me for the rest of my life.” He expressed regret to his former wife, family and friends.

Waldholtz will be on probation for five years after he finishes his prison term and must pay the Internal Revenue Service $10,920. He also was fined $175.