Two are sentenced in illegals case

By Tom O'Neill
Post staff reporter
Nov 9, 2007

In a quiet federal courtroom with just three spectators and zero fanfare, one chapter in Northern Kentucky's illegal-immigrant saga ended with the sentencing of two Boone County construction company owners.

Lonnie Storms and Todd Wilson, operators of S&W Custom Interiors in Florence, Ky., were each sentenced to three years' probation - eight months after their guilty pleas to charges of conspiracy to harbor illegal immigrants.

Their cooperation with federal investigators was a factor in their sentencing. The men initially faced up to 10 years in prison, but after one conspiracy count was dismissed against each, federal sentencing guidelines applied to their cases called for 12 to 18 months.

The two admitted in their March plea agreements that:

They kept paying one employee of their company after he acknowledged being in the U.S. illegally.

They used subcontractors who hired illegal workers.

They paid one illegal worker after it became clear he was using the identity of a cousin who was in the country legally. In that arrangement, they paid the U.S. citizen, who cashed the check and turned the money over to his cousin.

"I'm just sorry this whole thing happen," Storms told U.S. District Judge William O. Bertelsman in Covington.

Bertelsman accepted the probation report recommending no jail time for the pair, but struck a cautionary note in doing so.

"You guys caught a break here," he told them. "If you're back, you'll do some time. Guide yourselves accordingly."

Prosecutor Anthony Bracke agreed with the sentence.

Storms and Wilson also were fined $6,000 and $3,000, respectively, and ordered to do 200 hours each in community service. They also are prohibited from having weapons of any kind.

Storms and Wilson walked out of the courtroom free men after the hearing. Wilson was accompanied by his wife and three-month-old baby.

Their attorney, Michael Bouldin, said he was pleased with the sentences. He said he thought his clients had satisfied their obligation to cooperate with federal authorities investigating the use of illegal-immigrant workers in Northern Kentucky's construction industry.

"If they ask us to cooperate further," Bouldin said, "we're willing."

Authorities learned of S&W's involvement in hiring illegal workers during a two-year investigation by agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement that centered on Fischer Homes and its subcontractors. Several people were arrested at S&W offices a week after ICE agents arrested about 80 people at several Fischer Homes building sites in Boone County in May 2006.

Most of those defendants pleaded guilty; many who were foreign nationals were deported to their homelands, in Mexico and Central America.

Fischer, based in Crestview Hills, Ky., has never been charged with a crime in connection with the investigation and has steadfastly denied any wrongdoing.

Six Fischer construction supervisors were indicted, but those charges were later dropped.


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