DETROIT – Former Michigan lawmaker Bert Johnson was sentenced Thursday to 90 days in jail.
He pleaded guilty in March to conspiring to steal money and immediately resigned from the state Senate. Johnson, a 44-year-old Democrat from Highland Park, now will have to be supervised for two years after his release from custody and be confined to a home for the first 90 days upon his release.
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He'll also have to serve 480 hours of community service in the district he once represented -- District 2 -- and pay restitution of $23,133.89.
Prosecutors had been seeking up to a year in prison.
Court records showed Johnson borrowed thousands of dollars in cash from a co-conspirator -- later named as Glynis Thornton -- who was placed on the public payroll as a member of his staff, knowing that the co-conspirator was a “ghost employee” who contributed no work on behalf of Johnson’s staff.
According to the indictment, Johnson placed this employee on the payroll to pay off Johnson’s personal loan debt. The employee was paid more than $23,000 in taxpayer money, which Johnson now owes in restitution.
"Public officials, especially those elected by the people, cannot treat the people’s money as their own," U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider said. "The defendant in this case treated taxpayer money as his own, to repay his personal debt. Such an egregious abuse of power will not be tolerated."
On Thursday, federal Judge Matthew Leitman said he would have sentenced Johnson to 12 months in jail if he didn't know anything about Johnson.
"Had I known nothing about you and I was only focusing on the offense, I would have concluded that a state legislator who stole north of $20,000 and deprived his constituents, I would have been at the top of the guidelines in traditional custody. I would have been at 12 months in jail," said the judge.
Johnson addressed the court.
"I owe a huge debt both of gratitude and apology to my constituents, who since my resignation have not had a senator sitting in the Senate," he said. "I also want to apologize for the specter of what this represents, joining in what this region has experienced in terms of public corruption. I want to acknowledge that I never should have hired Glynis Thornton. That is my failing and it’s on me."