Former Cuyahoga County Judge Bridget McCafferty faces sentencing in federal court

CLEVELAND - Former Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Bridget McCafferty was sentenced to more than a year in prison during a hearing in federal court Tuesday afternoon on charges she lied to FBI agents during their ongoing corruption probe.

McCafferty was convicted last March after a jury found her guilty of 10 counts of lying to federal agents about whether she was ever approached by former Cuyahoga County Auditor Frank Russo or former Commissioner Jimmy Dimora about cases in her courtroom.

The federal judge sentenced McCafferty to 14 months in prison, which will be served at the federal prison in Alderson, West Virginia. Nicknamed "Camp Cupcake," It's the same female prison where Martha Stewart served time for lying to investigators about a stock sale.

She had the possibility of facing up to five years in prison on each count, but federal prosecutors are asking that McCafferty be given even a stiffer sentence that could result in additional years in prison.

In a motion filed in federal court, prosecutors argued that McCafferty's conduct created a significant disruption of the FBI's investigation as well as her status as a "well-educated attorney and judge heightens the need for an increased sentence."

Federal prosecutors will argue that McCafferty misrepresented her credentials claiming that she graduated "summa cum laude," when in fact she did not and that she lied to the media about whether her offices were searched by federal agents.

Prosecutors also claimed that McCafferty incorrectly reported the number of cases on her docket to the Ohio Supreme Court to make it appear that she had a lower number of active cases than she actually had.

McCafferty's lawyers were asking for probation, and after the sentencing said she will appeal the decision.

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