Former East Washington Chief Re-Sentenced In FBI Drug Extortion Sting
PITTSBURGH (KDKA/AP) - A former southwestern Pennsylvania police chief serving more than 11 years behind bars for extorting nearly $8,000 from undercover FBI agents he thought were drug dealers has been re-sentenced.
A federal appeals court in September ordered the new sentence for 58-year-old Donald Solomon, finding a judge wrongly calculated federal sentencing guidelines.
Solomon, who once told an informant in an FBI sting, "I'm the best cop money can buy", had his federal sentence reduced to 7-years.
Prosecutors argued that given the serious nature of his conviction in 2013 on charges of selling his influence to protect drug deals, the original 11-year sentence was appropriate.
But during today's hearing Solomon's friends and family portrayed him as a model inmate who is turning his life around, and Judge Joi Flowers Conti reached a compromise.
She sentenced him in accordance with the lower end of the guidelines, but kept him him jail for a significant period because of the nature of his offense.
Prosecutors are seeking the maximum penalty in that range, while the defense is arguing the Solomon has found God and is a changed man, deserving a lesser sentence.
The former East Washington Borough chief pleaded guilty in January 2013 to extorting $7,800 from the agents in exchange for protection during two staged drug deals and a promise to buy them police-issued stun guns.
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