Appeals court upholds Kerik's sentence

Former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik will have to serve his full 4-year sentence on charges of tax fraud and lying during White House background checks, an appeals court ruled Thursday.

The Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Kerik's claims that U.S. District Judge Stephen Robinson of White Plains, a former prosecutor, was biased against him and inappropriately gave him a tougher than expected sentence because Kerik had criticized prosecutors.

"To be sure, the district court noted the irony in Kerik (or his supporters) leveling baseless accusations of corruption against the prosecutors when it was he who had used his official position for his own personal gain," appeals court Judge Reena Raggi wrote. "But the judge hardly needed a prosecutorial background to be struck by this incongruity."

Kerik, 55, began serving his 48-month sentence last May. He is being held at a federal prison camp in Cumberland, Md., with a scheduled release date in 2013. His options now include seeking a rehearing or seeking Supreme Court review.

"We're disappointed but we're not finished," said his appellate lawyer, Andrew Schapiro. "We're evaluating all our options and are going to do all we can to get Mr. Kerik's unfair sentence overturned."

A former detective, and close ally of former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Kerik became a national figure as police commissioner in the wake of Sept. 11, and parlayed that fame into a nomination to head the Department of Homeland Security under President George W. Bush.

He pleaded guilty in 2009 to lying during vetting for that job, which torpedoed the nomination, and to tax charges relating to home renovation work he didn't pay for from a contractor looking to curry favor with the city.

His plea agreement and sentencing guidelines called for 27 to 33 months. The judge, imposing a longer term, brought up Kerik's continuing attacks on prosecutors -- remarks that Kerik, on appeal, said amounted to punishment for his exercise of free speech.

The appeals panel, however, said that while Robinson brought up the attacks on prosecutors, they weren't the basis for the sentence he imposed.