Judge sentences Faridah Ali to a year, invites appeal

After seven weeks of freedom, Faridah Ali must return to prison for up to a year on her fraud conviction in a scheme in which Community College of Philadelphia paid for nonexistent adult-school classes at her West Philadelphia Muslim school.

U.S. District Judge John P. Fullam called yesterday's sentencing unusual - the judge's original sentence of house arrest and probation was vacated on appeal by federal prosecutors - and invited the defense attorney to ask him to reconsider the prison term if he could find legal precedent.

Fullam said he believed the sentence might amount to double jeopardy for Ali because she had already served a two-year federal prison term resulting from her conviction in a different trial based on the same set of facts and evidence.

Ali, 59, was sentenced by Fullam in 2005 after a federal jury found her guilty of conspiracy and fraud in a scheme in which prosecutors say she skimmed more than $270,000 in federal education money from Community College.

She was subsequently charged with her husband, prominent Philadelphia Imam Shamsud-din Ali, in a separate broad racketeering case.

But prosecutors included the facts of the Community College fraud as one of the component criminal acts in the racketeering charge.

After Faridah Ali pleaded no contest in the racketeering case, a different judge sentenced her to two years in prison.

It was for that reason that defense attorney Andrew D. Kessler argued that resentencing Ali after she had already served sentences in both cases amounted to double jeopardy.

Double jeopardy is a provision of the Constitution's Fifth Amendment that prohibits second prosecutions for the same offense and, by extension, multiple punishments for the same offense.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony J. Wzorek said that yesterday's proceeding was not a repeat punishment for the same crime. Rather, Wzorek added, it was a resentencing ordered by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, which had vacated Fullam's original sentence.

The Third Circuit ruled that Fullam improperly interpreted federal sentencing guidelines when he sentenced Ali to house arrest and probation in 2005.

Ali, who was just released from a prison halfway house on Feb. 8 after serving most of a two-year prison term in the racketeering case, wept as she apologized to the community that supported her husband's mosque and their Sister Clara Muhammad School.

"I'm just so sorry the community still has to go through this with me," Ali said. "I spent the majority of my life trying to do good things and being a good person. But I do take total responsibility for my actions."

Fullam also resentenced Ali's daughter, Lakiha Spicer, 31, to six months in prison. Wzorek said Spicer was paid $71,055 by her mother to teach nonexistent classes at the Muslim school.

In addition to the prison time - mother and daughter must report by May 1 - Fullam put Ali on three years' supervised release when she gets out and ordered restitution of $120,000.

Spicer was also sentenced to three years' supervised release after her sentence and restitution of $30,000. Fullam had originally sentenced Spicer to probation and house arrest.

Wzorek, who again sought a four-year prison term for Ali and a two-year term for Spicer, said he had no comment on the sentence. Kessler said he would consider filing an appeal in the Ali case.

Ali's 68-year-old husband, meanwhile, is at the federal prison in Fort Worth, Texas, serving a seven-year term, with a tentative release date of December 2013.

Wiretaps conducted during the federal probe of the politically connected Alis led to the City Hall corruption probe, which became public Oct. 7, 2003, when an FBI bug, or recording system, was found in Mayor John F. Street's City Hall offices.

The former mayor was never accused of wrongdoing but two dozen others, including former City Treasurer Corey Kemp, were sent to prison on corruption-related charges.