
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, June 23, 1990                   TAG: 9006230200
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BALTIMORE                                LENGTH: Medium

`ROBIN HUD' THIEF SENTENCED

"Robin HUD," the former real-estate agent who claimed she stole about $6 million from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development to help the poor, was sentenced Friday to the maximum prison term of nearly four years.

U.S. District Judge Herbert Murray issued the 46-month sentence at the request of the agent, Marilyn Harrell, who federal officials said stole more from the government than any individual.

"I will ask you for the maximum term because I deserve it," Harrell told the judge. "I have never said what I did was right. In fact, if a person steals 5 cents, then they should be done with whatever the court sees fit."

Murray also sentenced Harrell to three years' probation and 624 hours of community service and ordered her to pay $600,000 in restitution. She was also ordered to serve a concurrent one-year sentence on a tax charge.

Prosecutors asked Murray to refigure the federal sentencing guideline formula used to determine her sentence, moving the limits from 30 to 37 months to 37 to 46 months, because of aggravating factors.

Despite Harrell's comments, public defender Anthony Gallagher, who asked for a 16-month sentence, said he intended to appeal the longer sentence. Harrell, 46, will not be eligible for parole.

"I think it's fair and I'm delighted, which is what Tony told me not to say," Harrell said after the hearing. "I asked for it because I deserve it.

"The money I took was not from a program that gave to the poor," she said. "The money I took was from a program that put people on the street through foreclosures."

As an escrow agent, Harrell collected money from the sale of properties purchased with federal HUD-guaranteed loans that had been foreclosed on. Harrell said lax management allowed her to divert the proceeds.

The actual size of the theft and how much she gave to charity were not resolved Friday. Prosecutors said she failed to turn in to HUD's Washington office about $6.6 million from the sale of 99 properties between 1985 and 1988, and gave about $1.1 million to charity.

by CNB