CHICAGO (AP) — A former prison chaplain who pleaded guilty to helping an imprisoned mob hit man recover a hidden violin has avoided additional time behind bars.
U.S. District Judge John Darrah sentenced Rev. Eugene Klein of Mesa, Arizona, to a single day Thursday, time that the Roman Catholic priest already has served. Klein also will be on supervised release for three years, with the first six months served in home confinement with electronic monitoring, and he must perform 200 hours community service.
Darrah found prosecutors hadn’t proven the violin was a rare 18th-century Stradivarius that purportedly belonged to the late entertainer Liberace. Prosecutors sought a five-year sentence.
Klein was accused of scheming with the late Frank Calabrese Sr. to find a rare, 250-year-old violin the mob enforcer hid in his Wisconsin summer home.
