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| Court rendering by Christine Cornell/Special to NJ Advance Media |
- I arrived shortly after 7 a.m. for a hearing that started at 10 a.m. There are so many reporters that most are sent down the hall to an overflow room where they can view the proceedings on a video feed.
- A bomb-sniffing dog makes a pass through the men’s room moments before the Giudices appear on the floor.
- One reporter snaps a picture as the Giudices come onto the floor – a violation of courthouse rules -- and is immediately approached by marshals. The couple is quickly ushered into an attorney conference room, across from the courtroom where they’ll be sentenced.
- I don’t have a front-row seat but it’s close enough to see Teresa and Giuseppe “Joe” Giudice holding hands as they walk into the courtroom shortly before 10 a.m.
- And I see Joe Giudice dab at his eyes when his lawyer tells of the moment the father he adored died in his arms after suffering a massive heart attack in his backyard.
- The first hint this could be a long day comes when Salas raises an issue she says is of “great concern.”
- The judge barely hides her frustration with what she views as the couple’s failure to come clean with probation officials about their finances.
- During a trip to the couple’s home probation officers spotted four ATV’s on the property that the couple hadn’t told them about. They also found a $4,000 backhoe and a 1997 Chevy Corvette valued at $15,000.
- “If there is an explanation, I want to hear it,” Salas says to Miles Feinstein, the attorney for Joe Giudice.
- Feinstein explains that after the death of his father, Joe Giudice found himself increasingly distracted and unable to focus on his criminal case.
- And, Feinstein notes, Giudice was never very good at gauging the value of things.
- “Joe has no idea what anything is worth,” Feinstein tells the judge. “This isn’t his field. He’s a builder. He left school early.”
- Feinstein admits that he was “shocked” when he noticed the omissions in the financial disclosure forms.
- “I appreciate it,” Salas said. “I’m glad I’m not alone.”
- For one thing, the judge couldn’t understand why Teresa Giudice failed to list any of her costume jewelry as an asset.
- “I own a lot of costume jewelry,” the judge confided. “I don’t own a lot of jewelry but I know what I have.”
- The give-and-take about finances goes on for nearly an hour, the judge getting more exasperated by the minute, her arms flailing.
- And that’s when I start to do the math. She’s going to sentence him to the maximum amount of prison time outlined in the plea deal – 46 months.
- But then Salas takes a left turn. She notes several of Joe Giudice’s good works like helping a family displaced by Hurricane Irene and his devotion to his family.
- “I’m giving you credit for the life that you have lived, at least to the people you have loved,” Salas told him.
- He’s sentenced to 41 months.
- “What you did in this case doesn’t define you as a man,” she told him. “You made some mistakes. You have to pay for them but you have a lot to live for.”
- She’ll offer similar words to Teresa Giudice.
- But before she does she lays into Teresa for failing to pay some $200,000 in taxes she owed ahead of her sentencing day.
- And then I realize that Teresa Giudice is going to prison, too.
- “Six months,” I write in my yellow legal pad, predicting the outcome.
- As it turns out I was off by about nine months. And the guessing game was over, six hours after it started.
- “15 months,” Salas said.
- Teresa Giudice never flinched. She stared straight ahead as her husband glanced her way, waiting for a reaction that never came.
Teresa Giudice will begin serving her prison term first, after the Christmas holidays, on Jan. 5, 2015. They'll have a chance to celebrate their 15th anniversary three weeks from now.
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Source/Photo Credit: NJ.com