The former mayor of Pine Lawn will spend 33 months in federal prison for extorting money from businesses in the tiny North County town.
Sylvester Caldwell pleaded guilty on April 13 to forcing the owners of a towing company and a convenience store to pay at least $2,600 to protect their businesses. He also admitted that he frequently took items from the convenience store without paying. The plea agreement included a recommended sentence between 27 and 33 months.
Caldwell did not speak at his hearing, other than to answer questions from federal judge Catherine Perry. His attorney, Grant Boyd argued for a sentence of about two years, citing Caldwell’s health issues and the good he had done for the city while he was in office.
"When Mr. Caldwell took over, the city of Pine Lawn was in shambles," Boyd said, to audible laughter from Pine Lawn residents who had come to watch the proceedings. "The conduct in this case aside, politics was his life."
Perry agreed with the request of prosecutors for a 33-month sentence.
"Elected office is not a license to extort money from those who do business in your city," Perry told Caldwell. "This is a man who took advantage of his situation and used to an illegal gain."
"This is an Independence Day for our city," said Elwyn Walls, one of 10 or so members of the group Concerned Citizens of Pine Lawn who attended the hearing in Perry's courtroom. "Now, the citizens of
Pine Lawn no longer have to fear the dictatorship of that man. We're going to rally around a better administration that we're going to elect."
Caldwell resigned from office following his guilty plea. He must surrender by noon on July 21. The election to pick his replacement is scheduled for November.
Follow Rachel Lippmann on Twitter: @rlippmann
