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Kelly Gearhart appeals guilty plea, sentencing

July 8, 2015

Gearhart111By KAREN VELIE

Former Atascadero developer Kelly Gearhart plead guilty to money laundering and wire fraud, was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison last week, and Monday he filed a notice of appeal.

According to the notice, Gearhart plans to appeal his guilty plea, his 14 year sentence and his reprimand into a federal facility in Los Angeles where he is currently being held without bail. Nevertheless, even though Gearhart’s attorney noted his intent to appeal multiple issues, in his appeal he may or may not raise each issue.

Until last week, Gearhart had lived in Ohio after posting $100,000 bail in 2012.

In July 2012, Gearhart was indicted by a federal grand jury on 16 charges of mail fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering. If convicted on all charges, Gearhart faced up to 300 years in federal prison.

In 2014, Gearhart, now 55, plead guilty to knowingly and intentionally making misrepresentations and omissions relating to real estate projects to get people and institutions, including nonprofits, to trust him with their money. As part of the plea agreement, Gearhart was charged with three of the original 16 felony counts which reduced the maximum sentence allowable by law to 50 years in federal prison.

During Gearhart’s sentencing hearing, the prosecution asked for a 135 months sentence and Gearhart sought 57 months’ imprisonment. Nevertheless, U.S. District Court Judge Otis Wright II sentenced Gearhart to 168 noting the grievous harm Gearhart inflicted on his victims.

The court filed a schedule on Tuesday that requires Gearhart’s attorney to file an opening brief by Nov. 4 and the prosecution to respond by Dec. 4.

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He will probably be released on bail pending his appeal unless the judge sets his bail so high that he cant afford the bond.


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This jack wagon is still gaming the system.


He has a public defender who probably jumped at the opportunity to file an appeal because guess who pays the public defenders bill?


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This is how we live up to our end of the plea bargain. just us


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He can pass the time in jail talking to all the other innocent people.


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Reminds me of the story of a governor’s visit to a state prison. He asked inmate after inmate whether or not they were guilty and each time received the reply, “No, sir.” When one inmate finally said, “Yes, I’m guilty as charged,” the governor hollered to the warden, “Get this man out of here! We can’t have him corrupting all these other innocent men!”


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Plead guilty and then appeal your plea? Good luck with that.


Federal court sometimes adds time to a sentence if the defendant does’t plead guilty–the thought being “you pay to play”. Here, it is too bad they can’t add more time for a frivolous appeal.


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The best system that money can buy. If his last name was Sanchez, would he have the money to fund this consequence eroding process? I used to think that most crimes were ethic challenges but with this moment of clarity, it is apparent to me that there is a strong possibility that white guys with money launder their crimes thus clearing their record.


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Race card? Really? I can name NUMEROUS sports players etc. that have had preferential treatment. It works in all segments of society regardless of race.


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Does he want to roll the dice and introduce those other 13 felony counts in a trial? Dangerous game he is playing, but I guess he is used to that.


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Well, the appeal process could take quite awhile, so as long as he remains behind bars without bail is a good thing. The way I see it, he had so many delayed trial dates for crazy reasons and remained free that whole time, it’s time to play solitaire in jail for awhile. Hopefully his appeals will be denied and this past trial was conducted in such a way that there is nothing he can point a finger at and say “that wasn’t fair.”


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This man caused so much intentional and permanent devastation to so many people, changed lives with greed and intent, that it comes to mind to suggest several additional punishments which are of course not legal, nor likely, but still my short list is:


1. give him “the chair”

2. toll or suspend “credit for time served” during his latest fruitless appeal, meaning that as long as he drags out more appeals, the DURATION months of those legal wranglings will be added to the length of his sentence.

3. get that star from TV’s “Dirtiest Jobs” to decide Kelly’s 12 hour a day job assignments in prison.


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His appeal souls be given as much consideration as he fave when he defrauded his victims.


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