Prison Terms for Lawyer, Ex-Judges Upheld
A federal appeals court in San Francisco on Thursday upheld sentences given to two former judges and a prominent attorney in a bribery scandal that rocked the San Diego court system.
The appeals court held that U.S. District Judge Edward Rafeedie was within his discretion in sentencing former Judges G. Dennis Adams and James Malkus and onetime San Diego lawyer of the year Patrick Frega.
The three were convicted in 1996 in a scheme in which the judges received more than $25,000 in gifts from Frega in exchange for favorable rulings and inside information about litigation opponents. A third ex-judge, Michael Greer, pleaded guilty and received probation after testifying for the prosecution.
Frega and Adams were each sentenced to 38 months in prison; Malkus received 28 months. Malkus and Frega said Rafeedie should have given them lighter sentences because of their lack of previous criminal histories; Adams asserted that he had accepted responsibility for his misdeeds.
The three began serving their sentences in July.
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