A former Fairfield County sheriff convicted of corruption is asking to be released early from his six-year prison sentence. A hearing is scheduled Friday for Gary DeMastry.
The former Fairfield County sheriff was convicted in December, 2001 on 32 counts involving corrupt activity, theft in office, tampering with evidence, obstructing justice, and receiving unlawful supplemental compensation. Visiting Judge Richard Markus sentenced the sheriff to six years in prison for using law enforcement money as a personal slush fund, in part to pay for family vacations. DeMastry's attorney, Kort Gatterdam says his client is eligible for judicial release now that he's served 5 years of the sentence.
"It's not like he's served 30 days or six months," Gatterdam says, "he's served five years of his sentence. He's done well in prison, he's expressed remorse for what he's done, and quite frankly he has costs of prosecution to pay and he can't do that from a prison cell so he needs to get working on paying back."
State audits showed more than $300,000 in the sheriff's office was unaccounted for between 1994 and 1998. Jurors never decided who had spent most of that money, only that about $11,000 was illegally used by DeMastry who still owes at least $210,000 for the cost of his prosecution.
A call to a Greene County prosecutor Suzanne Schmidt, one of the people who persecuted the case, was not immediately returned. Defense attorney Gatterdam says the six-year sentence is unusually harsh.
"It's a pretty severe sentence for a first-time offender of a non-violent crime," Gatterdam says. "And we just think the fact that he has served five years is a sufficient sentence. And obviously he would be on probation if the court grants the motion."
Visiting Judge Richard Markus will preside at the Friday afternoon hearing in Lancaster.