Probation

A FORMER business agent for the Wharf, Dockbuilders and Pile Drivers Local 454 was sentenced Tuesday in federal court to three years' probation for embezzling more than $8,300 in union money. Victor Rovani III, 34, of Pennsauken, must serve the first year under home confinement with electronic monitoring. Rovani, who made full restitution, was also fined $3,000. Authorities said that from March 2009 - four months after he was appointed business agent - to December 2009, Rovani stole the union money by writing three checks to himself, using the signature stamp of the union's president without approval and cashing the checks himself.

A former business agent for Local 454 of the Carpenters Union was sentenced Tuesday to a year of home confinement and three years' of probation for embezzling more than $5,300 from union coffers, prosecutors said. The agent, Victor N. Rovani III, 34, said he stole the funds during 2009. Rovani also initially tried to stonewall a union investigation into the missing money, according to the office of U.S. Attorney Zane D. Memeger. Rovani said he used the cash to support an addiction to prescription painkillers, according to court filings.

A former baggage handler at Philadelphia International Airport was sentenced to 36 months' probation for smuggling marijuana on flights bound for Bermuda, authorities said. Brian Wade smuggled drugs on US Airways flights for more than 10 years, said the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations. Wade was paid with cash that was smuggled onto flights from Bermuda to Philadelphia. On Oct. 7, 2010, his smuggling activity was noticed by another employee, and the airport was briefly shut down over fears of terrorism.

IF TYREE RICHARDS had walked down South Street with a loaded Colt Police .38 Special revolver tucked in his waistband a few months earlier than he did, he probably would have gotten probation, despite his Facebook-advertised gang affiliation and teenage arrest record. But Richards' sentencing in April happened after the city started GunStat, an initiative to reduce gun violence by targeting violent and repeat offenders in some neighborhoods where bullets fly too often. "Do you have a role model, someone you look up to?"

BEFORE GunStat, offenders arrested for illegal gun possession would often be let out of jail before trial without having to pay bail, and convictions often resulted in probation. But since the city started the initiative in February, targeted offenders are being held on high bail and getting jail time for carrying guns. Here's a sampling: 1 Tyree Richards, 19 Two-and-a-half to five years in prison, five years' probation for illegal gun possession. 2 Jerome Hill, 22 Four to eight years in prison after admitted he violated his probation for an accidental shooting with an illegal gun. 3 Jacquill Hill, 19 House arrest on gun-possession charge was revoked after he showed up in court in April for Richards' sentencing, sentenced to six to 23 months jail.

A North Jersey man who repeatedly stabbed his estranged wife's boyfriend with a pocketknife earlier this year will not be going to jail. Instead, Angelo Corino, 61, of Belleville was ordered Friday to serve five years' probation, perform 640 hours of community service, and attend anger-management counseling. He initially was charged with attempted murder but pleaded guilty in June to aggravated assault. Morris County prosecutors had sought a 364-day county jail sentence for Corino, who said he was distraught and confused when the stabbing occurred Feb. 15 inside his wife's Parsippany apartment.

Officer Moses Walker Jr. was a 19-year veteran on the Philadelphia police force, a deacon in his church, an optimist who saw good in many people during his cruelly short life. Dressed in civilian clothes early one Saturday morning after finishing his shift, Walker, 40, was slain last month during an armed robbery gone terribly wrong. He is the third cop killed this year, and the only officer to be murdered by gunfire. Rafael Jones was arrested and charged in Walker's death, having strolled out of prison 10 days earlier.

Throwing open the prison doors to put an inmate out on probation is always a gamble, but there are times when it's plainly just a losing bet. The release of the ex-con charged in the fatal shooting of Police Officer Moses Walker Jr. just before the Aug. 18 attack clearly is a case where law enforcement officials would, in a heartbeat, turn back the clock. Had the accused gunman, Rafael Jones, 23, not been on the streets that day with his alleged accomplice, Chancier McFarland, the 19-year police veteran Walker could have reached home safely after working an overnight shift.

WASHINGTON - A judge sentenced a top aide to former Sen. John Ensign to a year's probation Wednesday for violating federal lobbying restrictions. Doug Hampton, Ensign's former administrative assistant, said after Wednesday's sentencing that he was "very relieved. " Hampton, 50, was originally charged with seven felony counts of violating a one-year ban on former staffers lobbying the Senate. In a deal with prosecutors in June, he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor violation of the law. Hampton resigned his job four years ago after learning that his wife and Ensign were having an affair.