By George Anastasia
The Philadelphia Inquirer
PHILADELPHIA — A former Philadelphia police officer who more recently worked as the caddie master at the posh Whitemarsh Valley Country Club was sentenced yesterday to 30 months in prison after pleading guilty to fraud and money-laundering charges.
Joseph Logue, 58, admitted he bilked two unidentified members of the club out of $175,000 by convincing them to invest in a check-cashing business he had allegedly set up.
The business was a scam, federal prosecutors said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Kyriakakis described Logue as a “shameless” manipulator and con man who betrayed those who had befriended him.
The prosecutor asked U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence F. Stengel to sentence Logue to the high end of a sentencing guideline range of 15 to 21 months.
In fact, Stengel imposed an even tougher sentence, citing Logue’s “pervasive and long-term lack of respect for the law” and his “predatory conduct.”
Logue’s lawyer, William Spade, had asked the judge to sentence Logue at the lower end of the guideline, saying that Logue suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.
A decorated Marine helicopter gunner who served in Vietnam, Logue has battled the disorder since his tour of duty in 1970, Spade said.
A psychologist who has been treating Logue testified that he sought out dangerous situations for the “adrenaline rush” that disorder victims often seek.
Logue apologized for his actions prior to sentencing.
He said he was receiving counseling and was not the same person who had committed the offenses.
Logue’s war record - he received four Air Medals and the Distinguished Flying Cross - also was cited the last time he appeared in federal court nearly 20 years ago, a point that Kyriakakis noted in urging the judge not to be swayed.
In 1990, Logue was sentenced to five years’ probation after pleading guilty to tax-evasion charges linked to a bookmaking operation he allegedly ran while a member of the Philadelphia Police Department.
At that time, Logue admitted to under-reporting his income by $153,000 in 1984 and 1985.
Logue resigned from the police department in 1984 after a 14-year career.
In the current case, Logue and his wife were originally indicted on charges that multiple victims from the country club were defrauded of more than $2 million while Logue worked as caddie master between 1999 and 2003.
At one point during the investigation, a lawyer for Logue said members of the country club had lent money to him because he had agreed to repay at what amounted to loan-shark interest rates.
The original indictment, handed up in November 2006, was superseded by a criminal information filed in May in which the allegations were reduced to charges that $175,000 had been defrauded from two investors identified only by their initials, “RB” and “JF.”
Logue’s wife was not charged in that case. The charges against her in the original indictment were dismissed after Logue agreed to plead guilty.
Copyright 2008 The Philadelphia Inquirer