Pennsylvania: Ex-chief gets prison in cover up of death; Man sentenced to 13 months

By Michael Rubinkam Associated Press WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (AP) -- A former police chief accused of hindering an FBI investigation into the beating death of an illegal Mexican immigrant was sentenced Wednesday to 13 months in prison after a federal judge called sentencing guidelines "overly harsh." The sentence handed down to former Shenandoah Chief Matthew Nestor was even less than his own attorneys asked for and well below the 57 to 71 months recommended in a presentence report filed by the probation department. Senior U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo called the guidelines "inappropriate" for Nestor, who was convicted in January of falsifying a police report related to the July 2008 attack on 25-year-old Luis Ramirez. Federal prosecutors charged Nestor, Lt. William Moyer and a third former officer with helping a group of white high school football players conceal their roles in the fatal beating. Jurors cleared all three defendants of conspiracy to obstruct the federal investigation, but Nestor was convicted of a single charge that he failed to record the names of the suspects and omitted the fact that he had numerous phone conversations with one of the defendant's mothers, Tammy Piekarsky, in the hours after Ramirez was attacked. Two of Ramirez's assailants, 21-year-old Derrick Donchak and 19-year-old Brandon Piekarsky, were convicted of a federal hate crime and are serving nine-year prison sentences. Nestor maintained his innocence while addressing the court Thursday. He said he set out to "write a concise, informative police report with what I did, what I saw, what I heard." He denied trying to craft a report that would help the teens and said he would write the report the same way again. "I respect the jury's verdict. I don't understand it, but I respect it," Nestor said. He is appealing his conviction. Moyer was found guilty of lying to the FBI. Nestor and a fourth officer were charged with extorting money from bookmakers running illegal gambling operations, but the extortion charges were dismissed and a jury acquitted both men of civil rights and obstruction counts. Published: Thu, Jun 2, 2011