Harry Fishleigh Sentenced To Probation In Embezzlement Case

Former Planning Commission Chairman Harry Fishleigh III will be able to spend the holidays at home, though he will be probation with his location monitored.

U.S. District Judge Patricia Gaughan sentenced him to two years of probation and eight months of location monitoring for embezzlement. She could have chosen to send him to federal prison for as long as 18 months.

Sept. 27.

Fishleigh took $97,000 from the pension plan of a company he controlled. His attorney, Albert Purola, said that Fishleigh's business had been hurt badly by the recession and he had taken the money to get by.

"(Fishleigh) has the optimism of a salesperson," Albert Purola, Fishleigh's attorney, told the judge. "When he took the money wrongfully, he was under the impression he could replenish it."

"The money was not take for cars or trips to Aruba. It was taken for sustenance," Purola added.

As of Tuesday, Fishleigh has paid $117,000 to make restitution. Purola told Gaughan that Fishleigh used the inheritance he received from his mother, who passed away earlier this year, to repay the victims and cover administrative costs.

"Judge, I obviously made a terrible mistake. I borrowed money that I didn't have any right to borrow," Fishleigh said during his hearing.

Gaughan initially said she had concerns that Fishleigh was minimizing the seriousness of his crime.

"It seems you are minimizing the crime by saying , yet is was prosecuted criminally," she said to Fishleigh. "I'm a little uncertain if you realize the gravity of what you did here."

However, both U.S. Attorney Vasile Katsaros and Probation Officer Allen Gold said that Fishleigh did realize the seriousness of his actions.

Ultimately, Gaughan decided not to send Fishleigh to prison because he did make restitution, has no criminal history and took responsibility for his actions.

"Don't misinterpret that as me not considering this a serious offense," Gaughan said of her sentence.

"I don't like it when money is taken. Hard-working people rely on this money for their families and it's not there," the judge said.

The embezzlement case stems from Fishleigh's role as the former trustee of the North Coast Wood Products Profit Sharing Plan

According to the Labor Department, Fishleigh improperly transferred $97,000 in plan assets to his son, Steven Fishleigh.

Specifically, that Fishleigh transferred the plan's total assets, belonging to 11 participants, to his son from July 2006 to July 2009. Fishleigh was president and part owner of Mentor-based North Coast Wood Products Inc., which closed in late 2005.

Since Fishleigh was convicted, .