Tobin receives10-month sentence

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CONCORD, N.H. – Former Republican Party official James Tobin will serve 10 months in a federal prison for his part in a scheme to jam New Hampshire Democrats’ get-out-the-vote phone lines in 2002, a federal judge ordered Wednesday at the end of an emotional three-hour hearing.

Tobin, 45, of Bangor, who will serve more time than either of his co-conspirators, also was sentenced to two years of supervised released after his release from prison and ordered to pay a $10,000 fine. U.S. District Judge Stephen McAuliffe ordered Tobin to report to prison June 23 and recommended he be sent to a minimum security facility.

Tobin faced up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

Longtime friends, pastors from All Souls Congregational Church in Bangor and Tobin’s wife, Ellen Tobin, described the defendant as a caring and loving father and husband who had spent his life helping others.

In addressing the court, Tobin apologized to them all.

“I apologize to my family, friends and community,” he said. “I am most sorrowful for the effect this has had on my children, my parents and my wife.

“I wish I had actively discouraged this activity,” he said, referring to the phone-jamming plan, but he did not clarify the extent of his involvement or knowledge of the scheme.

Tobin’s defense attorneys told the court they would appeal the verdict to the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston, so most likely had advised him not to admit guilt in his allocution.

The judge also denied a defense motion that Tobin remain free pending the outcome of that appeal.

Tobin, who was regional director of the Republican National Committee in 2002, was convicted in December after a six-day trial by a jury of 11 women and one man of conspiring to jam New Hampshire Democrats’ get-out-the-vote phone line three years ago. He also was found guilty of aiding and abetting the jamming of those phone lines.

After two full days of deliberations, the jury also acquitted Tobin of the more serious charge of conspiring to deprive residents of their right to vote on Election Day in 2002 when Republican U.S. Sen. John E. Sununu defeated former Democratic Gov. Jean Shaheen in a close race.

“I’m not sure you recognize that the nature of this offense is extraordinary,” Judge McAuliffe said Wednesday in imposing Tobin’s sentence. “It was a direct assault on free and fair elections. … Our democracy is fragile, it cannot afford assaults on the integrity of that process.

“It wasn’t just about Shaheen and Sununu,” he continued. “It was about an entire election. We’ll never know if the wrong people are sitting in government. It had an impact. We just can’t measure it.”

Defense attorneys urged that Tobin be sentenced to six months of home confinement and ordered to perform community service and pay a fine. Prosecutors asked that the defendant spend a year in prison. Both sides lost motions that would have increased or decreased Tobin’s recommended sentence under the federal sentencing guidelines. That range was six to 12 months.

Along with their sentencing memorandum, defense attorneys submitted more than 160 pages of letters from supporters. Several of them testified Wednesday.

Tobin’s wife described him as a devoted father and husband who cared more for others than for himself.

“Who is Jim Tobin?” defense attorney Dane Butswinkas of Washington, D.C., asked the defendant’s wife of 20 years.

“He’s the guy who walks into a room and lights it up and doesn’t even realize he’s doing it,” she answered. “He’s the guy who makes everybody feel special.”

One of the people to whom Tobin paid special attention was Roy Gallagher, Ellen Tobin testified. Gallagher died in Bangor last week at age 95 with Jim Tobin at his side. The two met more than 20 years ago and became best friends, she said. After Gallagher’s wife died and he was diagnosed with cancer, the Tobins convinced him to move from Washington County to Bangor so they could help care for him.

Tobin, dressed in a blue suit and white shirt, wept as his wife described how her husband cared for the dying man in his last hours. It was the only time during the hearing that he was visibly overcome with emotion.

Friends testified that Tobin is a man of honesty and integrity. His work in his church and the community outweigh the impact of the guilty verdict, the Rev. James Haddix, pastor of All Souls, testified.

“He has a great reputation among all of us who know him,” Haddix said. “His public reputation has suffered due to the trial and the verdict, but to those of us who know him well, it’s untarnishable.”

Tobin was indicted by a federal grand jury in late 2004 after two other men had pleaded guilty to similar charges. Both testified against Tobin at his trial.

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

Allen Raymond, who found the firm that made the repeated hang-up calls to five Democratic offices and a firefighters union, was sentenced to five months in prison. His sentence was reduced to three months after he testified against Tobin. Raymond, 39, of Maryland is scheduled to be released from the Federal Correctional Institution at Loretto, Pa., at the end of the month.

A third man, Shaun Hansen, 34, of Spokane, Wash., has pleaded not guilty to being a part of the phone-jamming conspiracy. Hansen owned the Idaho-based company that made the more than 800 hang-up phone calls. A trial date has not been set.

After the sentencing Wednesday, Tobin and his attorneys declined to comment. Ellen Tobin, flanked by family and friends, left the federal courthouse without commenting.

Kathleen Sullivan, chairwoman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, said after the hearing that she was pleased with the sentence, but criticized Tobin’s statement to the judge.

“There was no apology to the voters,” she said, “no apology to the people working that day. I was shocked by that.”

Lead prosecutor Andrew Levchuk, who works for the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., said outside the courthouse that it “was a fair sentence.”

Because Tobin and the others are the first people in the country to be prosecuted for jamming political opponents’ phone lines under the telephone harassment laws, his attorneys have laid the groundwork for his appeal.

It was unclear Wednesday, however, who would pay for it.

Until his conviction in December, Tobin’s legal fees were paid by his former employer, the Republican National Committee, according to news reports published earlier this month.

The Republican National Committee reportedly has paid Tobin’s legal team $2.8 million since his indictment in December 2004, but declined to pay for his appeal.