Former U.S. Rep. Richard “Rick” Renzi continues to evade punishment for his crimes of abuse of the public trust. Now a convicted felon, Renzi faces an inevitable three-year prison sentence but has asked for delays and filed appeals that have now been heard and rejected by courts all the way up to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Renzi is the former representative for Sedona, the Verde Valley and Northern Arizona in Congressional District 1 before it was redrawn following the 2010 Census. In February 2008, Renzi was indicted by a federal grand jury on 35 counts ranging from wire fraud and money laundering to extortion and conspiracy.
The 57-page opinion issued in October from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reads like the screenplay for a film about corruption and the abuse of political power. According to the court, the day after Renzi announced he was running for Congress in 2001, he “began diverting cash from [his insurance company] to fund his congressional campaign,” defrauding his customers of their insurance premiums to pay for his campaign.
The companies that were supposed to insure his clients sent his company the bill demanding hundreds of thousands of dollars they were owed and began sending out cancellation notices. Renzi directed his staff to draw up fake insurance policies for his customers, assuring them they were still covered when in fact, they were not, according to the court.
At the same time, Renzi engaged in a conspiracy involving a land swap between a copper mining company and U.S. Forest Service, strong-arming the mining company to buy a virtually useless piece of property in Cochise County owned by Renzi’s business associate James Sandlin, who owed Renzi $700,000. If the copper mining company agreed to buy the land, Renzi promised to get the federal land swap approved using his authority as a member of Congress, according to the court’s opinion.
Renzi compounded this abuse of power by denying any relationship existed between himself and Sandlin and failing to disclose the eventual payment Sandlin made to him.
Renzi’s lawyers appealed to higher courts to stop the prosecution and all sorts of legal maneuvering including claiming the investigation violated his privilege as a congressman under the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause, which the court said did not apply, especially in a corruption investigation.
In July 2013, Renzi was convicted of 17 of 32 counts and sentenced to three years in federal prison.
Every American is entitled to a fair trial, a vigorous defense and the hope of reasonable doubt. But when the verdict is handed down and the courts continue to agree the defendant received a fair trial but is still guilty, there must come a point when the defendant must serve his sentence. Renzi defrauded customers who trusted him and abused the trust of voters as a congressman. A jury convicted him and a judge sentenced him, according to the law. We must hold our lawmakers to higher standards and when they abuse the power with which we entrust them, they must be held accountable.
Corruption fosters cynicism toward government at all levels and stains the honor of honest public servants. It it now time for Renzi to serve his sentence.
