A subdued James Gustafson expressed relief after a federal judge decided not to jail him.
By DEE DePASS, Star Tribune
Last update: February 3, 2011 – 10:46 PM
Loyal to a fault.
That’s how his defense attorney described James Gustafson, who began clearing snow off cars for auto dealer Denny Hecker when he was just 16 years old.
Gustafson, 49, was sentenced Thursday to 120 hours of community service, two years of probation and a $1,000 fine for his role in the Hecker fraud. He had faced nearly three years in prison.
He pleaded guilty last year to lying to the government, preparing a fake auto title for Hecker’s 2004 Cadillac Escalade and ushering the phony paperwork through the state. For a time, the fraud helped Hecker hide assets from Chrysler Financial and the bankruptcy court.
“Toward the end, the [Hecker] entities became a toxic waste site and my client got contaminated by that and he did a bad thing,” Gustafson’s attorney Fred Bruno told the court.
