- Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter
A federal judge in Missoula doled out a peculiar, almost Draconian punishment Thursday - a public shaming.
William Cody Horvath, 36, of Whitefish, pleaded guilty to making false statements earlier this year, admitting that in August 2001, he lied to his probation officer about having served in the U.S. Marine Corps in hopes of earning compassion.
The officer was gathering information on a prior charge against Horvath for being a fugitive in possession of firearms or ammunition. Hoping to temper the consequences of those charges, Horvath said he had been wounded in combat, and showed the probation officer photographs of himself in full military dress.
However, representatives from the U.S. Marine Corps said there was no record of Horvath's military service, and said the uniform and its decorations were worn improperly in the man's photographs.
Molloy, who is himself a veteran, sentenced Horvath to four years of probation, four months of house arrest with electronic monitoring and required the man to perform 50 hours of community service by marching or walking in front of the courthouse, during regular business hours, wearing a sandwich board with “large letters.”
Like a modern-day scarlet letter, the front of the board will read: “I am a liar. I am not a Marine.” On the back: “I have never served my country. I have dishonored veterans of all wars.”
Horvath's attorney, Dan Wilson of Kalispell, said Friday he could not comment on the sentence without his client's approval. Horvath could not be reached for comment.
Judge Molloy and U.S. Assistant Attorney General Josh Van de Wetering also said they could not comment on the sentence.
In fashioning the portion of Horvath's sentence that addressed donning a sandwich board, Molloy followed a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision in which Shawn Gementera, a convicted mail thief in California, was ordered to stand outside a post office for 100 hours wearing a sign that said: “I am a mail thief. This is my punishment.”
The case eventually supported the use of humiliation or so-called “shaming” conditions, and explicitly holds that “a public apology may serve a rehabilitative purpose.”
In 2005, Gementera asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the decision, and the Supreme Court declined.
Molloy also ordered Horvath to write letters of apology to several Montana newspapers, the U.S. Marine Corps, Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion in Kalispell. The judge said Horvath must admit in the letters that he lied repeatedly about serving and being wounded.
Reporter Tristan Scott can be reached at 523-5264 or at tscott@missoulian.com
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