A former Arizona legislator was sentenced to 18 months of home confinement for his felony convictions for seeking and accepting bribes while he was a Tempe city councilman and misleading donors about a scholarship fund that benefited his relatives.
Former Rep. Ben Arredondo had admitted he accepted sporting tickets and other benefits from FBI agents who posed as employees for a real estate development company looking to do business in Tempe.
The former Democratic lawmaker admitted that more than $49,000 from a scholarship fund he established had gone to seven of his relatives.
He never revealed to prospective donors that family members were receiving the funds.
Prosecutors had asked for an 18-month prison sentence and a $49,000 fine.
Crashed posted at 12:43 pm on Thu, Jan 24, 2013.
Always believed he was crooked - even way back when he was coaching football at Mesa High and trying to get into politics. Amazing how light politicans get off committing crimes that would send the average citizen to prison for years.
ekevinm posted at 5:58 pm on Thu, Jan 24, 2013.
Thank God for a judge with some common sense. I would like to say to the disappointed prosecutors and FBI undercover officers, that we have a lot more serious criminals in our neighborhoods. Drug dealers in every bar. Armed robberies and other violent crimes daily in the East Valley. Sure Ben made some mistakes, but who did he really hurt?. How much time and money did we waste with this BS. This was politically motivated and nothing like this can blemish the fantastic achievements of this great family in Tempe. So please do your jobs and try to catch some real criminals that have actually hurt someone! Once again, thanks goes to this judge who sees our community problems in a much more realistic perspective than the law enforcers in this case. This punishment was fair and still in no way diminishes the tremendous contributions of the Arredondos in Tempe
.
tededitedit posted at 9:18 pm on Thu, Jan 24, 2013.
ekevinm, Civic leader has really disappointed many former supporters. If you do good things then it's okay to do bad things? The good things start looking like a "diversion". It's much better now to do good things (for free) in repayment of recent bad things. If this was trumped up, then why did he change his plea from not guilty to guilty on the advice of attorney's he'd used much of his re-election funds to pay for? - that HURT some contributors. And weren't students who were probably more deserving of college scholarships HURT by his giving those scholarships to family members? And what about the Fiesta Bowl payola?
Has the scholarship fund been shut down? Will the Sports Complex now be renamed "Arredondo Family" Sports Complex or something else?
bubba posted at 12:57 pm on Fri, Jan 25, 2013.
Ben Arredondo Mesa High football coach turned polititian, convicted felon for bribery and $49,000 fraudulent scholarship fund scheme. .....18 months house arrest ?......Give me a break !.....Crooked then, crooked now!!
Anybody else would be in the "Crowbar Hotel" for these felonies.
bubba posted at 1:27 pm on Fri, Jan 25, 2013.
Arredondo recieved $6000 worth of sports tickets, $65,000 of "college fund" fraud money, and his fine was only $5,000 and $500 in restitution. Now he'll sit at home, watch Netflix and still be with his friends and family for the next 18 months. No sleeping in tents, green baloney or pink underwear. And he'll still collect his taxpayer supported pension and enjoy taxpayer paid healthcare for the rest of his life. And they say crime doesn't pay......
lauraaz posted at 8:50 pm on Sat, Jan 26, 2013.
This light sentence is an insult to every citizen of Tempe. We have a right to
have honest representatives who represent their districts, not whoever bribes them. We need to hold our elected politicians to a higher standard of conduct, and the penalty for betraying the public's trust should be severe. How about a citizen referendum for the next
election calling for mandatory minimums of 25 years and fines 5 times what they took.
And while we are at it, let them lose their pension benefits as well. If they don't have anything to lose, why should they stop?