No early release from 'Camp Cupcake' for ex-Michigan Supreme Court justice

 By Traci R. Gentilozzi

Dolan Media Newswires
 
DETROIT, MI—Former Michigan Supreme Court Justice Diane M. Hathaway will not be released early from serving time for felony bank fraud at “Camp Cupcake.”
Hathaway had asked to be released from federal prison in Alderson, W.Va., ahead of time, or have her one-year-and-a-day prison sentence reduced. She had also asked to be sent to a halfway house.
In her request for early release, Hathaway claimed she made progress toward rehabilitation and should be given credit for attending prison classes, including yoga and “Sweating to the Oldies.”
“Neither of these grounds provides a legal basis for the court to modify her sentence,” said Detroit federal Judge John Corbett O’Meara, reports The Detroit News.
Hathaway is supposed to be released June 26, but argued her sentence is unconstitutional. She said that, in not granting her halfway house request, the Federal Bureau of Prisons denied her equal protection of the law.
“[Hathaway] has not, however, shown that she was intentionally discriminated against based upon her membership in a protected class,” O’Meara said. “Further, it is within the Bureau of Prisons’ authority and discretion to designate [Hathaway’s] place of confinement, not the court’s.”
To persuade the judge, Hathaway attached copies of 14 certificates she earned while attending classes in prison, including one for Jewish study, brisk walking, poetry and basic parenting.
Hathaway pleaded guilty in January 2013 to one count of felony bank fraud, just days after she resigned from the Supreme Court bench.
Prosecutors claimed Hathaway hid assets of more than $1 million and misled a bank while negotiating a short sale of her Grosse Pointe Park home.

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