Former trustee
has 60 days until
jail term beginsA federal judge allows
Lokelani Lindsey to care for
her ailing husband until Aug. 4
Lokelani Lindsey, a former Kamehameha Schools trustee, was given an additional 60 days to care for her ailing husband before she begins serving her six-month prison term for federal money laundering and conspiracy convictions.
U.S. District Judge David Ezra ordered Lindsey to turn herself in no later than 3 p.m. Aug. 4 at a facility designated by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.
Lindsey was sentenced in October to six months in federal prison and three years of supervised release for her role in a scheme to hide sister Marlene Lindsey's assets from bankruptcy court.
At that time, Ezra granted Lindsey a six-month delay and ordered her to report June 2 to a women's prison camp in Dublin, Calif. The postponement was given so she could care for husband Stephen, who underwent surgery in November for a growth on his spinal column.
Her attorney, William Harrison, asked Ezra yesterday to extend the stay another six months because Stephen Lindsey's condition has become very acute and possibly life-threatening and she needs to be there to care for him 24 hours a day. He suffers from heart and other ailments.
But Ezra granted a stay of only 60 days.
Since the surgery and a subsequent surgery in December, Stephen Lindsey has developed blood clots in his lower extremities and is no longer ambulatory, Harrison said.
Lokelani Lindsey has been giving 24-hour care for her husband at home and does not have the money to pay for him to be institutionalized, Harrison said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Les Osborne objected to the extension, saying letters from Stephen Lindsey's doctor do not indicate any grave change in his condition. While the government doesn't dispute he has a serious medical condition, the doctors point out that he can get the proper care in an institutional setting, Osborne said.
"The time now has come for that sentence to be served," Osborne said.
Ezra said that while Lindsey is not a murderer or a terrorist, "she committed a serious crime and did so with some degree of arrogance."
Giving her another six months would amount to a full year she would have delayed going to prison and would appear to be favoritism, Ezra said.
"I understand Mrs. Lindsey's concerns, but I can't just roll over, roll over and roll over," Ezra said. "It's not fair to the law, to the community and justice to do that."
