Following the high court’s decision, Mr. Strand said, U.S. District Judge Christopher Reid Cooper claimed he would have sentenced him to one year in prison anyway, even without the felony conviction. Judge Cooper is an Obama appointee.
“[Judge Cooper] said, if the felony had not been there, but I’d gone to trial, he would have sentenced me to 12 months on a first-time nonviolent misdemeanor,” he said in a phone interview. “That’s not just crazy. That’s like 10 times crazy.”