Drug-smuggling WWII vet goes to jail
Leo Sharp, a 90-year-old World War II vet was sentenced to three years in the federal pound for smuggling a ton of cocaine to Michigan for the Mexican drug cartels, according to Military Times;
Darryl Goldberg, Sharp’s Lawyer, argued it would be “cruel and thoughtless” to send his client to prison because he is old and frail and suffers from dementia and also happens to be a war hero (Sharp received a Bronze Star in WWII).
But U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds was unmoved by Sharp’s age, his birthday, or his military service and declined to show mercy, saying “It’s not a victimless crime. This is a huge drug operation and Mr. Sharp was right in the middle of it. It would be weak for me to say, ‘Well, he’s an old man …’ I think respect for the law requires there be some custody in this case.”
According to the Detroit Free Press, Goldberg pleaded, saying “Mr. Sharp is part of a great generation…before we were even born, he was on top of mountains fighting Nazis. That’s not how we honor our heroes whether they’ve fallen from grace or not,” and went on to claim that Sharp was brainwashed and bullied into continued cooperation by the cartel.
Well, I don’t think there’s time to rehabilitate him while he’s in prison, but he needs to do the time, anyhow. He earned it, he deserves it. I’ve always said, looking around me, wisdom doesn’t always accompany age. Leo is a shining example of that little maxim.
Thanks to Matt for the link.
Category: Shitbags
Sad to see. But, like with life and society in general; there are always bad guys, no matter whether they are cops, soldiers, clergy, etc. I just want to make them the exception, not the rule.
I have to agree. It’s unfortunate, but he did the crime.
The question that his supporters need to ask them selves is this: Would they still hold a similar view if he had been convicted of molesting his granddaughter? Of vehicular homicide?
It is incumbent upon our justice system to show mercy when warranted, but in this case, i have to agree with the judge.
So, he is heartbroken and says he is going to kill himself. My questions is, why hasn’t he done it? I’ll tell you why. He’s a freaking coward who hoped to beat the charge or sidestep prison and, now, failing those, he wants to kill himself. Bye, buster. This SOB moved a TON of coke. You think he did that in a day? Perhaps. My guess is that it took time to move that much and it took a lot of time. He knew what he was doing. Screw him.
Agreed. Age alone is neither and excuse for crime nor an excuse for evil.
Don’t drop the soap.
Do the crime, do the time! (Veteran or not)
I don’t feel sorry for him. He knew exactly what he was doing and made huge profits from it. He knew better,and did it anyway.
Oh, yeah – that dementia thing? If he really had it, why would he say he wants to kill himself? Fiddlesticks!
This one tried to pull off a Madoff plus a Bernath. Nice try.
Human interest. What’s the rest of the story? What has he done over his life time?
What would cause this man to be a mule for a drug cartel?
All I can come up with is money. With a small pension, rising costs of taxes, food, fuel, insurance, medicine and medical costs may have forced him in this direction of lawlessness.
Yes, I agree….you do the crime, you do the time.
At least He’ll receive better care in a federal prison that many nursing homes.
He was widely known for the daylilies he hybridized and sold. He received a lot of awards for those products. He also had more than one piece of expensive real estate, in Florida and Michigan.
And he knew exactly what he was getting into. Unfortunately, he got careless.
“With a small pension, rising costs of taxes, food, fuel, insurance, medicine and medical costs may have forced him in this direction of lawlessness.” Forced him in this direction? Do you have violin accompaniment for that? Give me a break.
Most know where to find “sympathy” in the dictionary.
He needs to do the time he earned by his actions. Though he is part of the “Greatest Generation”, they too had their ass holes, thieves and criminals. Barracks theft was as alive and well in WWII as it is today.
I think that Stephen Ambrose in his book “Citizen Soldiers” stated that after the Allies took France there was always the equivilent of a Infantry Divison AWOL in Paris at any given time.
This counted guys who were anywhere from a few hours or days late to full blown deserters.
No mercy. He turned on the nation he served, supplied poison to the people he once protected. He should be shot like a dog and buried in a city landfill.
As a 90 year old fart, how on earth did he even have a license. I know there are some that can still drive (my dad and mom were still behind the wheel at age 92) but to haul a ton of drugs from the Mexico to Michigan takes some ability not to mention ass boils. BZ
Eh, Let him serve a year or deport him to Amsterdam. I find this a different sort of crime. The drug laws are out of sync and most BS to keep government agencies funded. We like to beat our chest and talk about how we are a free people, but if we were truly free then I could do a line of coke of my wife’s perfect ass on a saturday night and it would be nobody’s goddamn business unless I infringed on them. Meanwhile every asshole has the right to drink a 5th of Jack and screw up his marriage, job and life. Color me indiferent to this old cat making some cash. And thanks Leo, for popping a bunch of Nazis. Good job.
Sure it should be no one’s business, until you get behind the wheel of a car, after snorting your paycheck. Or, if you flip out from a coke induced episode and start freaking on your neighbors. Sure, in a free society, everyone should be able to do anything they want, that’s just the definition of utopia. I like that you qualified your statement about infringing on others. Most people all jacked up on high powered drugs usually do infringe on others, because they’re so out of their fucking melon that they don’t know it. I have seen it up close and personal. Everyone that is a proponent of making drugs legal has yet to define what the threshold should be, before they are considered impaired to drive. Plus, what about public intoxication? You can’t drink a beer, or be drunk, in public; so should those same rules apply to drug use, whether hard drugs or weed? How would you test to see if they are snapped up? Would you have to take a picture of pupils the size of pinholes to prove it? What are the standards?
Whoa, ease up Speed racer. Just stating an opinion. But allow me to retort;
“Sure it should be no one’s business, until you get behind the wheel of a car, after DRINKING your paycheck. Or, if you flip out from a MASSIVE DRINKING episode and start freaking on your neighbors.”
And of I qualified that as long as you’re not infringing on someone. thats the very bedrock of freedom. I can live whatever kind of jag off existance I feel like as long as I’m not bothering you.
There are people who will drink, do drugs responsibly, and people who won’t. Just like there are people who will handle guns responsilby and people who wont. As a free citizen, who pays my taxes and votes,if I want to sit in my living room, hit a joint, drink a 5th, or smear my body in lime green jello while watching “Judge Judy”, if I ain’t bothering you, leave me the fuck alone. The minute I infringe on you, then deal with me.
You do realize you just undercut your own argument – don’t you, Intel POG?
Both examples you use in your “retort” above are in fact illegal today. The former is called DWI, while the latter is at a minimum public intoxication/disturbing the peace – and depending on the precise circumstances and conduct, possibly substantially more.
Further: one of the points that Old Trooper made – which you for some reason chose not to address – is the fact that defined legal standards for “intoxication” exist in virtually all jurisdictions for alcohol. To my knowledge, the same is not true for any of the currently-illegal drugs.
I didn’t undercut my argument. I was saying none of you are calling for alcohol to be made illegal again. I was taking Old Trooper word about drugs and inserting “Drinking” Which is legal. If you can’t see my sarcasm I’m sorry.
As far as ways to determine inpairment, that is something that can be determined with a finger prick blood test if we want to. The point I’m making is that Alcohol ruins more lives and families than we can count. And if you are against drug use, well booze is a drug. So lets make it illegal.
Actually, yeah, you did.
When all the rest of the ills of society are addressed, perhaps making alcohol illegal again will become a personal priority. Right now there are much worse things negatively impacting society. Drug abuse is one of those things.
Yes, there are people who abuse alcohol. There are people who abuse just about everything else on the planet as well. Meanwhile, I know quite a few people who have had a problem with alcohol at some point in their lives who are leading productive lives.
Have also known quite a few drug abusers over the decades. Not one of them is now leading a productive life. Most either died prior to age 35 or got off the drugs, but the physical damage done by the drug abuse led to premature heart disease and other lethal infirmities.
“The minute I infringe on you, then deal with me.”
Some people don’t live past the episode of “infringement” — that’s why we attempt prevention of behaviors by making them illegal.
But you already knew that.
You’re right. Some People don’t don’t live past the infringement. Some clerks get shot by handguns, So take mine away. Some family members are accidentally shot by other family members, so take my guns away. Some people are killed by drunk drivers, so take my booze away. Wives are beaten by drunk husbands, so take my booze away. If you want to control what people put in their bodies, then be consistent. Once again, this is an opinion. I’m not putting any of you down or disrespecting you. Just my thoughts on the matter.
“There are people who will drink, do drugs responsibly, and people who won’t”
Really? Name someone that uses heroin responsibly? How about a responsible, social meth user? I know several crackheads and one of them is a brain surgeon (that’s sarcasm, btw).
Stop embarrassing yourself.
Do you really want names of people who did Coke, grass, extascy in the 80’s and now are cool? If I do you won’t believe me. Full disclosure, my father smoked a ton of pot in the 60’s did some acid and some coke in the 80’s. Moved on, gave up the cigarettes, still had a drink occasionally, and worked for 35 years for the state of Florida as a lawyer. I smoked some pot and did a bit of coke when I get out of the Marines. Met my wife, have two kids, been married for 15 years. And pretty much indulge in a couple of miller lite’s at the VFW on a Friday night now is all I do.
I’m not embarrassing myself, just stating an opinion. No need to be flip, trooper. I’ve disrespected no one.
I’m sure that someone addicted to heroin does so responsibly. I’m not talking about what someone did in the past, but rather what they do in the present. I can go to a bar and have a beer and walk out and go home. A person that just shot up isn’t going to be able to function for a while afterwards.
Your were attempting to make an equal comparison using unequal scenarios. Nice try, but you’re embarrassing yourself, again.
Also; the “embarrassing yourself” statement comes from Sheldon on Big Bang Theory and isn’t meant to be “flip”. As an aside; would you trust a lawyer with your legal issues if you knew they were doing coke? How about your doctor? That’s what I thought.
Look around you, Leo-boy. How many living bronze star recipients are there? Hundreds or probably thousands. How many smuggle coke for Mexican drug cartels besides you? Yeah, that’s what I thought. Do your time, scumbag.
Got me wondering. Can he still be buried with military honors, or does his felony bar that?
As I read it, Pinto Nag, he probably can be.
Full details of when a vet is prohibited from being buried in a National cemetery can be found here, starting on page 9. Short version: only those vets with a DD or who were convicted of capital crimes, selected sex offenses, and those who were convicted of subversive activities after 1 September 1959 and who have not been pardoned are banned. There are a few others, but that’s in general it.
Unless this guy could have been sentenced to death, he’s likely still entitled to burial in a National Cemetery. I’d guess that would mean he’d receive military funeral honors as well.
He should get that. Whatever his fuckups since then, he did serve our country honorably (and exemplary) in time of war.
One “Ah, shit” wipes the slate clean. Never forget it.
Thanks for the information, Hondo.
I don’t know how old you are, but a great-uncle of mine once made a comment I’ll paraphrase here. You might understand it, or you might not, but for sure this old bugger would.
“Let him fight fire in his shirt tail, like everybody else!”
He earned the right to be buried in a national cemetery back when. I know that it is distasteful to ponder that criminals would be buried next to those who continued to live honorable lives, but it is what they did then that earned them their cemetery place, not what they did yesterday.
I understand from what you and Hondo have said that he has that right under the law. What I’m saying is that it is possible, and should be reflected in the law, to dishonor yourself to the point that you mess up badly enough to remove that honor. And he has. Otherwise, why bother to live honorably? Where is the benefit, if one act in your early life covers for the rest of it? It doesn’t — that was a rhetorical question — but you see what I’m saying.
What you propose is reflected in Federal law today, Pinto Nag. Conviction of certain crimes indeed revokes the honor of burial in a National Cemetery.
However, for better or worse, the crime for which this guy was convicted isn’t one of them. So in the eyes of the law, he hasn’t screwed up badly enough to forfeit that honor.
I have no sympathy.
look at the real numbers,
Lets say he only smuggled 1 ton of coke, likely its allot more but that what he got caught with.
1 ton of coke is 259,195 3.5 gram 8 balls. This is assuming he was not going to cut it before distribution. More than likely he would have cut it.
Price it at about 80 bucks a gram.
or 72.5 million dollars, uncut.
How many deaths, trips to the hospital, torn apart families did his going to jail prevent from that one shipment being stopped? Who knows.
Being a Vet does not give a person a pass to break the law. I believe we should hold ourselves as vets to a higher standard.
Let his ass die in Jail, he earned that right by smuggling drugs. Let him be buried in the prison cemetery, HE gave up any right he had to anything else when he decided to profit on others pain and addiction. Fuck him
Hold the phone. The only sourtce that I am aware of that he received a Bronze Star (No V device is mentioned) and that he fought “Nazis in Italy” is the newspaper. No records or sources are referenced whatsover and, dollars to donuts, the attribution traces to the drug mule’s attorney and his mitigation statements. Whjat stopped me cold was that Nazis in Italy business. Who talks like that? I bet there wen’t a dozen actual Nazi party members in the whole of Italy. As far as I am concerned, without any reliable source cited, this POS isn’t a Veteran at all. Prove otherwise–or is this one of those bon jours situations?
Agreed that verification would be good, 2/17 Air Cav. However, it’s plausible.
All personnel receiving the CIB and CMB during World War II were retroactively awarded the BSM after the war. However, that was a “one-time” exception. The same exception was not made for Korea and subsequent wars.
If the guy served as an infantryman or medic during World War II and received the CIB or CMB, he’d rate the BSM for that reason.
7 German Divisions fought in Italy after Italy decided to switch sides.
Pretty sure more German division than 7 fought in Sicily and Italy, Twist. A quick check of Wikipedia (yeah, I know) indicates that over 255,000 Germans soldiers died/were MIA in Italy (including Sicily) during World War II, and that over 168,500 were wounded.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_Campaign_%28World_War_II%29#cite_note-13
I would like to see an FOIA on him. Because of his current level of scumbaggery, I’m having a hard time believing anything good about this man.
Yeas, I understand that. What I am saying is that there is no attribution given for the claim that he is a Veteran, A combat Veteran, and a Bronze Star recipient. None. Zilch. His age may make it seem credible but not to me. And Twist, that there were many Germans in Italy I do not dispute. My point is that there is a vast distinction between Nazis and Germans–but I wouldn’t expect a hired gun (his atty) to appreciate that distinction.
IF he truly has dementia, I can muster a bit of something akin to “sympathy” for the potential for abuse of his mental condition by criminals. (Please note that the IF is capitalized intentionally. It’s a huge IF.)
Otherwise, there is no justification for knowingly breaking the law. If you don’t like a particular law, work to change the law. Until then, obey the law. Simple. I might go easy on a guy stealing food for his children, at sentencing, were I on his jury, but he still would pay the penalty for stealing.
Thew dimentia was bullshit, agin from his lawyer. When he was arrested in 2011, he refused a conmsent search of his pick-up truck, which was loaded with cocaine. And the rational decision to do himself in place of prison doesn’t bespeak dimentia at all. He caught a huge break, although I do not know why. The state asked for 5 years and the sentencing guidelines set a base minimum of 14. He got three.
Apparently this was no isolated incident on Sharp’s part. Here’s one article on Sharp:
http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20140507/METRO01/305070053
And here’s a second, which indicates Sharp was in the “transport” business as far back as 2000:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/08/leo-sharp-guilty_n_4065998.html
Ain’t buying the “dementia” argument – not for a pattern of wrongdoing that netted the man millions (literally) and which extended over more than a decade.
Well, there is that causation thingy here. If one buy drugs from another, the seller is almost certainly involved in violence, if for no other reason than to maintain his selling turf. If that isn’t the case, then the violence is another link or two up in the chain. Thus, when one buy drugs, he is financially supporting the shootings and other forms of violence that drug dealers engage in. There is no such thing as no impact or ‘infringement’ on others when iit comes to buying, selling, and using illicit drugs.