Disgraced former Brooklyn Assemblywoman Pamela Harris will serve just six months behind bars for defrauding the federal government, a judge ruled Wednesday.
Harris showed no emotion as Brooklyn federal court judge Jack Weinstein finally delivered the sentence — after twice pushing back the༒ date saying he needed more꧙ time to consider her fate.
Though prosecutors asked Harris serve more than 3 year behind bars, Weinstein told the gallery he felt the hardships Harris had ওfaced throughout her life, and her genuine remorse for her theft, merited a lesser sentence.
“She has suffered extraordinarily harsh and repeated blows,” the 97-year-old jurist said of the ex-pol’s personal history, which includes domestic abuse, homelessness, the death of her daughter, and prostituting herself to support a crack cocaine addiction. “Yet she has also has exhibited a remarkable capacity to rehabilitate herself.”
Between 2012 and 2014, Harris pocketed $45,000 in City Council discretionary funds meant for a non-profit she ran before taking office, and also defrau🔯ded nearly $25,000 from FEMA by claiming her home had been destroyed in Supersto﷽rm Sandy.
Prosecutors say she spent on a sauna, vacations, and lacy unmentionables from Victoria’s Secret.
She’d faced up to 30 years behind bars in the scheme prior to her guilty plea in June.
“It must be said that while she did not use her position as an elected official,” to commit crimes, the jurist said, “they continued while she served in the assembly, therefore eroding public opinion.”
Weinstein added that he thought she’d better serve her community on the outside, noting that he felt she was “still suffering from the psychic scars of her dreadful past.”
In addition to her six month sentence, Harris must 🌊serve 400 hours community service, in addition to paying $45,600 and $24,000 in restitution.
Harris was instructed to surrender on Dec. 4.
“We are grateful for Judge Weinstein’s thoughtful and fair consideration of all the relevant factors in this case,” defense attorney Joel Cohen wrote in a statement he handed reporters following the proceeding. “Ms. Harris looks forward to putting this all behind her and continuing to help people as she has always done.”
Asked if she’d like to comment as she stood with her husband, Harris said “no.”