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(Pittsburgh-AP) -- Joseph Waldholtz, a former political strategist and ex-husband of a former Utah congresswoman, was sentenced to three to 15 years in state prison today for stealing from his brother and late stepmother.
Allegheny County Judge Jeffrey Manning suggests that perhaps theft is an addiction for Waldholtz.
The 41-year-old Forest Hills resident once served as executive director of the Utah Republican Party and is the ex-husband and former campaign manager of former Republican U-S Representative Enid Greene Waldholtz of Utah. He spent about two years in jail after pleading guilty in 1996 to writing bad checks worth two-point-seven-six (m) million dollars between the couple's checking accounts in a congressional credit union and a bank in Utah.
Waldholtz says he regrets the impact on the health of his stepmother and his late father, who died in 1999.
His stepmother died last June, before he was convicted. She testified that Waldholtz cashed checks from her account, including a 25-thousand dollar insurance check to her from his father's estate. Waldholtz also forged his brother's signature on a 52-hundred dollar check from the Department of Veterans Affairs and deposited it into one of his own accounts.
Waldholtz's attorney, Joseph Paletta, contends that Marilyn Waldholtz had asked him to return from Boston after his father died to help take care of the household. He blamed faulty record keeping for Waldholtz's troubles.
(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved)
