Ex-judge Amundson won't get shorter sentence

[Hoss68]

Paul Gustafson, Star Tribune
November 25, 2004

An attempt by a former state judge convicted of theft to have his prison term cut has been rejected by a federal judge.

Former Minnesota Court of Appeals Judge Roland Amundson alleged in a lawsuit that state corrections officials violated his constitutional rights by rescinding his entry into a prison boot camp program that could have reduced his five-year, nine-month sentence to about 1½ years served in prison.

Amundson, convicted of stealing more than $300,000 from a mentally disabled woman's trust fund, argued that he was treated differently from other inmates who committed similar economic crimes and were allowed into boot camp.

But U.S. District Judge Richard Kyle dismissed the suit Monday on the recommendation of U.S. Magistrate Judge Janie Mayeron. Mayeron said Amundson's equal-protection rights were not violated because state Corrections Commissioner Joan Fabian had a rational basis for keeping Amundson out of boot camp.

Ron Meshbesher, Amundson's attorney, said Wednesday that he disagrees with the ruling but has yet to talk with Amundson about whether to appeal.

That may not be practical, because Amundson could be released to a halfway house late next year before a federal Appeals Court could decide the case, Meshbesher said.

The defense attorney suggested that Fabian rescinded Amundson's entry into boot camp because of pressure from Hennepin County Attorney Amy Klobuchar, whose office prosecuted Amundson, and others.

Klobuchar denied contacting Fabian about Amundson but acknowledged that she and other county attorneys told Fabian that the prison boot camp, called the Challenge Incarceration Program, is not proper for people such as Amundson who commit major economic crimes.

Klobuchar said she was "not surprised by [Kyle's] decision. It seems like the just result in this case."

State Corrections Department officials could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Amundson, 55, was sentenced to state prison in June 2002 by District Judge Richard Hopper, who gave Amundson a sentence one year longer than recommended by state guidelines.

When a prosecutor and Hopper learned in May 2003 that corrections officials were about to place Amundson in boot camp, they objected, saying that he was not a proper candidate and that the move would inadequately punish his crime.

Fabian then rescinded Amundson's boot camp entry. She said she did so in part because of Hopper's objection. She also said that Amundson was not appropriate for a boot camp program aimed at helping inmates overcome personal problems he did not have, such as drug addiction, or a lack of education and self-discipline.

Mayeron said that both of those factors were rational reasons for denying Amundson's entry into boot camp and therefore Fabian's decision did not violate his constitutional rights.

"It is evident that [Amundson] is not the type of prisoner that the Minnesota Legislature had in mind when it enacted the [boot camp] statute," Mayeron wrote.

The magistrate judge also rejected Amundson's claim that his due-process rights had been violated. Exclusion from a self-improvement program like boot camp is not the type of serious hardship required to make a due-process violation claim, she wrote.

Background~ http://www.twincities.com/mld/twinci...3425787.htm?1c