Judge orders public shame for fraud defendants

Judge orders shame for fraud defendants
By Guillermo Contreras
San Antonio Express-News
Published: June 29, 2013

SAN ANTONIO — In what he noted might not be legal, a federal judge on Friday ordered a very public shaming for two former officials of a now defunct contractor for their roles in overcharging taxpayers more than $6.4 million between 2002 and 2008.

Chief U.S. District Judge Fred Biery sentenced Donald Dean Brewer and his wife, Sherri Lynn Brewer, both 64, to a lifetime of probation and ordered them to publish an admission to their crimes in their hometown newspaper.

The former San Antonio residents retired to Clovis, a small town in southeastern New Mexico, and faced six to 10 years in federal prison.

“There has not been a full and forthcoming acceptance of responsibility,” Biery said. “There's been minimization. You are going to write a letter to be published in the Clovis newspaper. ...It better be a real strong confessional. It better say, 'I am a liar. I am a thief. I betrayed my friends. I betrayed the United States.'”
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