Federal prosecutor recommends up to two-year sentence for Tobin

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CONCORD, N.H. – A federal prosecutor has recommended that a former Republican official spend more than twice as much time in prison as his two co-conspirators.

James Tobin, 45, of Bangor could be sentenced to 18 to 24 months in federal prison if a federal judge grants a motion filed Wednesday by Andrew Levchuk, a prosecutor with the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.

Tobin is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday, May 17, by U.S. District Judge Steven McAuliffe in U.S. District Court in Concord.

In a strongly worded victim-impact statement filed Thursday, the attorney for the New Hampshire Democratic Party urged that Tobin be sentenced to five years in prison and fined $250,000 – the maximum allowed by law.

Paul Twomey of Epsom, N.H., also asked that Tobin be ordered to pay restitution to the party for the cost of its get-out-the-vote effort in 2002. Twomey did not tell the court how much that effort cost the party.

Tobin’s attorneys had not filed their sentencing recommendation by 5 p.m. Thursday, but are expected to file objections to Levchuk’s recommendation before Wednesday.

Efforts Thursday to reach Tobin’s attorneys in Washington, D.C., for comment were unsuccessful.

The well-known Republican strategist was found guilty in December of conspiring to jam the Democrats’ get-out-the-vote phone lines more than three years ago and of aiding and abetting the jamming of those phone lines. After deliberating for two days, the jury of 11 women and one man acquitted him of the more serious charge of conspiring to deprive New Hampshire residents of their right to vote.

Charles “Chuck” McGee, 36, of Manchester, the former executive director of the New Hampshire Republican Party, who came up with the phone-jamming idea, served seven months in federal prison last year.

Allen Raymond, 39, of Maryland, who found the Idaho firm that made the repeated hang-up calls to five Democratic offices and a firefighters union, was sentenced to five months in federal prison.

Both pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges and testified against Tobin, who suggested McGee contact Raymond about the plan. In plea agreements with McGee and Raymond, prosecutors recommended that their sentences be reduced.

After his former colleague was convicted, Raymond’s sentence was reduced a second time to three months. He is scheduled to be released May 31 from the Federal Correctional Institute at Loretto, Pa.

Under federal sentencing guidelines, defendants who plead guilty rather than seek a trial receive lesser sentences. If he had not gone to trial, Tobin’s guideline range most likely would have been six to 12 months, the same as Raymond’s original guideline range.

According to the post-guidelines that apply to Tobin’s case, the base recommended sentence is 12 to 18 months.

Levchuk, who heads the prosecution team, has asked the judge to impose an enhancement that would add six months to the guideline range.

Prosecutors argued in their motion that Tobin’s sentence should be increased because:

. He abused his positions of trust with the Republican National Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee, groups he represented during the 2002 campaign season.

. The scheme directly affected at least a dozen people when phones rang almost constantly during a two-hour period.

. The intent of the conspiracy was “far more egregious” than the typical harassment offense, which usually involves harassing phones calls between former intimate partners.

“In sum, the crimes committed in this case would not have occurred but for Tobin’s blatant abdication of his positions of public and private trust with the RNC and NRSC,” Levchuk wrote in the motion.

McGee testified in December that if Tobin had disapproved of the idea, he would have dropped it.

The state Democratic Party’s attorney asked that the judge impose the maximum sentence and fine because of the large number of victims, Tobin’s denial of responsibility, and his refusal to cooperate with prosecutors.

“As a direct result of Tobin’s crimes and his refusal to accept responsibility, democracy itself has suffered a grievous blow,” Twomey wrote. “These actions took place in a context of extreme danger to American democracy both internally and abroad. By causing large numbers of citizens to question the fairness of elections, Tobin and his fellow criminals have weakened the underpinnings of our civic life at a time when we can least afford it.”

Twomey blamed Democratic losses in at least four close state races on Tobin and the phone-jamming scheme, referring to the losing candidates as “victims.”

“The greatest victim of Tobin’s criminality ultimately is society as a whole,” Twomey continued, “as his acts have jeopardized the public’s confidence in the electoral process and have instilled doubt in voters as to whether they live in a society which fiercely protects and defends the sanctity of free and fair elections.”

The repercussions of the phone-jamming scheme aren’t expected to abate with Tobin’s sentencing next week.

In March, the man who owned the Idaho-based company that made the more than 800 hang-up phone calls pleaded not guilty to the same charges Tobin was found guilty of. Shaun Hansen, 34, of Spokane, Wash., was paid $2,500 to make the calls, according to court documents.

A trial date in his case has not been set.

New Hampshire Democrats have filed a civil lawsuit in state court that they hope will expose knowledge or approval of the scheme by GOP officials higher than Tobin.