Chuck Person’s sentence light due to charity
NEW YORK — Chuck Person’s lifelong generosity may have driven him to the poorhouse, but it saved him from the jailhouse Wednesday when a judge sentenced him in a bribery scandal that implicated several major men’s college basketball programs.
U.S. District Judge Loretta A. Preska cited the former NBA star and Auburn assistant coach’s “random acts of charity that happened all the time” as she explained why he won’t be locked up for taking bribes to steer top college players toward a financial adviser who was cooperating with the government’s investigation.
“The worst thing you have to say is that you were charitable to a fault,” she told Person, who wiped tears from his face repeatedly. “Keep up the good work.”
She ordered him to do 200 hours of community service during two years of supervised probation, saying that “no purpose would be served by incarceration.”
Sentencing guidelines called for two years in prison, though three other coaches who pleaded guilty to the same bribery conspiracy charge also received leniency.
Preska said the money Person gave to family, friends, strangers, charities and the schools that propelled him to a 13-year NBA career earned him leniency and a shot at redemption. She said she “disagreed vehemently” with a prosecutor’s claim that Person was motivated by “insatiable greed.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Boone told Preska that Person’s crime was worse than others in the bribery scheme because he tried to get players and families to accept bribes even though the government cooperator never suggested it.
The judge read extensively from more than 70 letters of support, many citing the generosity that included houses for at least 10 family members, college tuition for two nieces, and computers, school supplies and shoes for high school students.
When he ran out of money, he took out loans to give even more, including $300,000 for a lighted softball complex in Laverne, Alabama, Preska said.
Person, who was in financial trouble at the time, accepted $91,500 in bribes to parlay his relationships with top players to steer them to a financial adviser, federal prosecutors said. The adviser, however, was working as a government cooperator.
Preska noted that after signing his first NBA contract, Person sent most of the money to his family and bought his mother a house. After his playing career ended, he turned down lucrative jobs in the NBA to make less money as a college coach.
Person, who started a personal basketball training business in Atlanta last year, told the judge he had “deep remorse” for taking advantage of his players. He said he still loved Auburn and always will and hoped that “they will one day forgive me and let me come back.”