JERSEY CITY AND BEYOND – Former Deputy Mayor Leona Beldini, convicted on corruption charges stemming from 2009’s Operation Bid Rig 3 sting, was scheduled to begin life behind the bars of a Texas prison today, according to published reports.
The former treasurer of Mayor Jerremiah Healey’s reelection campaign was convicted on two counts of bribery in February 2010, and mounted a series of unsuccessful appeals attempting to avoid incarceration, most of them based on claims of poor health or errors in her trial.
Sentenced to a three year term, Beldini will serve her sentence in Carswell Prison in Ft. Worth, a women’s medical facility. The prison affords its 1,363 inmates a variety of educational training services, recreation equipment, and drug and alcohol counseling.
If Beldini is assigned to a work crew she can earn between 12 and 40 cents per hour for her labors, the reports said, but no federal taxes are collected.