The coronavirus pandemic has handed get-out-of-jail-free cards to scores of Latin King gang members, fentanyl dealers, kidnappers, embezzlers and parents jailed in the college admissions scam case.
Billionaire pharmaceutical executive John Kapoor, 76, successfully pushed off reporting for his 66-month sentence due to “chaos” in prisons over COVID-19, his lawyers said in their appeal backed by a Boston judge.
It’s “survival of the fittest” behind bars, his lawyers added in fighting to push back Kapoor’s reporting date to July 21. The Insys Therapeutics Inc. founder was convicted of bribing doctors to prescribe the company’s opioid painkiller, Subsys.
U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling in Boston posted Wednesday, without comment, the entire list of those who have won, lost or have pending hearings linked to coronavirus early dismissals.
Lawrence Police Chief Roy Vasque blasted the early releases, saying public safety needs to be “priority number one” — especially during a pandemic.
“They’re in jail for a reason,” Vasque told the Herald. “They’re almost using the virus as an excuse. I know it’s a new age, but I’m not happy this is happening. It’s frustrating and we’ll be dealing with these people again, I’m sure.”
Among those released, according to Lelling’s list, are parents convicted in the Varsity Blues college admissions scam.
Napa Valley winemaker Agustin Huneeus, 53, was sprung two weeks early last month, the feds report. The San Francisco dad pleaded guilty to taking part in two different schemes to try to get his daughter into the University of Southern California as a water polo player.
Another Varsity Blues defendant, real estate executive Toby Macfarlane, 56, of Del Mar, Calif., walked out of prison April 14 cutting short his six-month sentence, the feds say. He was ordered to be on home confinement until the end of June — when his sentence is up for lying to get his kids into USC.
Others let out include Latin Kings gang members nicknamed King Gordo, King Playboy, King Pun, King Nasty and King Prodigy. They’re part of a federal sweep last year of 60 “active Latin Kings Chapters” operating in Boston, New Bedford, Springfield, Lynn, Salem, Chelsea, Lowell, Lawrence, Worcester and Fitchburg.
Lelling’s list also includes Shastaalena Blair, 39, of Fitchburg, charged as part of an alleged fentanyl, heroin and cocaine trafficking conspiracy. She was let out April 2.
