So, did you spend Saturday watching Notre Dame, Alabama and Florida State football games? Notre Dame lost but Alabama beat the Mississippi State Bulldogs, by the way.
Do you wonder which football games inmates watch in prison? Well, I do.
Sunday marks the two-year anniversary of the day that former Cuyahoga County Auditor Frank Russo entered the Federal Correctional Institution in Loretto, Pa. Just before noon that day two years ago, Russo and his domestic partner Michael Calabrese drove to the prison in a white Mercedes.
Except for 66 days in the Cuyahoga County Jail in late September, 2013 through Nov. 22, 2013 as he allegedly testified before a grand jury, Russo has spent the last two years in federal prison.
To review, the FBI went public on July 28, 2008 with its investigation into corruption in Cuyahoga County when 200 FBI and ATF agents raided county offices, private businesses and the homes of county officials.
Russo, of Mayfield Heights, resigned as auditor on Sept. 9, 2010, then pleaded guilty to 21 crimes soon afterwards. He also testified against a myriad of other corruption defendants before heading off to Loretto. Russo reached a plea deal with federal prosecutors and was sentenced to almost 22 years in prison.
Early on, Russo asked U.S. District Court Judge Sara Lioi for a Rule 35 -- a reduction in his sentence for his cooperation and testimony in the probe. I called Russo's attorney Roger Synenberg this week and asked when her ruling on that might occur. Synenberg said "It's up to the judge."
At his sentencing, Russo said, "I've regret what I've done, I'm very, truly sorry for what I've done with my heart, but if you look back, there's nothing I can do about it. What I can do is make a difference in the future."
So Russo will spend another Thanksgiving in prison eating prison fare. And on Dec. 9, he will celebrate his 65th birthday.
And what about his infamous partner-in-crime Jimmy Dimora, a former Cuyahoga County commissioner and former head of the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party? Well, he is now in sunny California?
Dimora was arrested at his home on Sept. 15, 2010. Dimora, of Independence,who turned 59 in June, had a seven-week trial (where Russo testified against him) and was found guilty on March 9, 2012 on 31 counts.
Lioi subsequently sentenced him to 27 years and 11 months in prison.
Like Russo, Dimora was also in the Cuyahoga County Jail in the fall of 2013, allegedly testifying before a grand jury.
But I digress.
Dimora began serving that sentence in FCI Gilmer in Glenville, West Virginia. (Once convicted, he was held in the Northeast Ohio Corrections Institution in Youngstown until he was sentenced.)
On March 14, 2014, he was moved from Gilmer to a federal prison in Victorville, California. When asked, a U.S. Bureau of Prisons spokesman declined to cite the reason for the move but said inmates are moved for a variety of reasons, including judicial requests, security, special medical needs, psychological issues, the inmate's protection or a disciplinary reason.
That puts Dimora thousands of miles from his family at Thanksgiving. And too add insult to injury, on April 30, 2014, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld his conviction and sentence. So, he appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
On Oct. 6, 2014, the Supremes declined to hear his appeal. The old adage "Oh, how the mighty have fallen" seems appropriate.