Two years ago, Antonio McIntosh, originally from Brooklyn, N.Y., was led away to federal prison with a 35-year sentence for dealing crack cocaine in this city.
On Wednesday, he left federal court again, but this time with 26 years less time to serve.
McIntosh and co-conspirator Domonique Haynes, originally of Philadelphia, appealed their May 2006 convictions, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office offered to have the case returned to U.S. Middle District Court here for a hearing.
But the hearing never took place because the government presented both men with a plea offer that substantially reduced the amount of prison time.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office has never fully explained why it opted to offer a plea agreement instead of conduct a hearing.
Some court sources have said the nine- and eight-year sentences the two face still are significant. But others suggest it was a likely way to keep the process from getting complicated by the state prosecution of two former city police officers who were involved in the McIntosh-Haynes investigation and who now face unrelated corruption charges brought by a state grand jury.
Former Lt. Thomas Ungard and former Cpl. Dustin Kreitz have surfaced as targets in other appeals. But, during McIntosh’s sentencing before U.S. Senior Judge James F. McClure, defense attorney Andrew Shubin mentioned Kreitz by name as he argued that a pre-sentence report should be disregarded because it relied on findings from the jury trial during which Kreitz was a witness.
Shubin alleged the trial was tainted by misconduct, but Assistant U.S. Attorney John McCann argued there is no proof of trial misconduct by anyone, including the suspended officers.
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