Wake-Up Call: Fly-by celebs headed to prison

Joe Nacchio isn't the only one going to jail. Yesterday, U.S. District Judge Marcia Krieger denied Nacchio's request to remain out on bail pending a petition of his conviction to the Supreme Court. The former Qwest CEO, who ran a Denver-based company but kept his home in New Jersey, has...

By Patricia Calhoun

March 13, 2009

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Joe Nacchio isn't the only one going to jail. Yesterday, U.S. District Judge Marcia Krieger denied Nacchio's request to remain out on bail pending a petition of his conviction to the Supreme Court. The former Qwest CEO, who ran a Denver-based company but kept his home in New Jersey, has been ordered to report to prison on March 23.

And another U.S. District Judge, John Kane, revoked the bond of another fly-by Denver celebrity. Christina Elizabeth Szele, who was sentenced to five years' probation after she pleaded guilty to assaulting members of a JetBlue flight crew last summer, had been warned by Kane that she needed to behave. She didn't: On Sunday, Szele, who is back in New York, was again arrested and accused of assaulting her sister-in-law.

Kane could now sentence her to up to twenty months in prison.

A shame she and Nacchio can't be bunkmates.

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Patricia Calhoun is editor-in-chief of Westword, the alt-weekly she co-founded in September 1977. She’s been inducted into the Colorado Press Association Hall of Fame, the Association of Alternative Newsmedia Hall of Fame and the Colorado Restaurant Association Hall of Fame. She’s also received dozens of local, state and national awards for writing, including first place for feature writing and first place for column writing with the Society of Professional Journalists. Patricia is a weekly commentator on Colorado Inside Out, PBS 12's public affairs roundtable, which has won two Emmys.

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