Diane Hathaway, the former state Supreme Court justice who's expected to plead guilty Tuesday in Ann Arbor to a federal bank fraud charge, faces up to 33 months in prison. Still, she apparently will be eligible for a hefty state pension, according to the Capitol Confidential news service.
Retirement benefit checks would be withheld "only if the court ordered it," Kurt Weiss at the Michigan Department of Technology, Management and Budget tells Jack Spencer of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy news blog.
"There is nothing in statute that changes her ability to get her pension. If she were convicted, the court could possibly order some kind of change, but that would be unusual."
Spencer, a veteran Lansing journalist, estimates the ex-justice's annual state pension would come to $98,766, "based on calculation information posted on the Office of Retirement Services website and general information about her 20-year career in the court system."
He notes that the Michigan Republican Party early this month said Hathaway should give up her pension.
Her resignation from the top court took effect Jan. 21. Federal prosecutors accuse Hathaway of making false statements to a mortgage holder, transferring property to others and failing to disclose available cash -- all in an effort to fool the bank into believing she had a financial hardship. As a result of the alleged fraud, a Jan. 18 court filing says, Hathaway erased a $600,000 debt to a bank.
