Leona Helmsley

I read in The Times that the judge in the IRS case involving Leona Helmsley and her husband ordered her to go to federal prison for a four-year sentence, pay an $8-million fine and serve 750 hours of community service. In my opinion this judge’s decision dramatizes how out-of-touch our justice system is.

Since the shortage of funds for public use is painfully present all over our country (according to the politicians) it would seem that for a case like this where a super-wealthy person (who employs several thousand people and gives lots of money to charity) is accused of income-tax impropriety, the fitting punishment would be to raise the fine to $50 million (or some other very high figure that would definitely punish the accused), then deduct $8 million for the IRS and give $42 million, tax-free, to the homeless.

Instead the judge elected to imprison a sick old lady, at further public expense, and possibly endanger her life and the life of her totally dependent 83-year-old husband.

ARTIE KANE

Los Angeles