By: Brendan Kearney

Baltimore County businessman Jack W. Stollof was sentenced to a year and a day of home detention in May for his role in a years-long, multimillion-dollar tax sale bid-rigging scheme.

Perhaps the only reason Stollof, who reportedly drove around in his Jaguar to check up on the properties he’d bought, didn’t receive a prison term like co-defendant and fellow septuagenarian Harvey M. Nusbaum, a lawyer, is because he has a heart condition, as well as a history of bladder cancer and meningitis, and the presiding federal judge decided he was too fragile to survive a year in the clink.

Apparently encouraged by U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz’s clemency, Stollof, through his attorneys, has made several attempts to modify the terms of his home confinement. Hey, why not?

The first came in July, when Stollof asked Motz for permission to attend his granddaughter’s birthday party in his own backyard. Humbling to be sure, but the request went unopposed by federal prosecutors. Motz was fine with it, too, and Stollof got to go outside.

Not one to quit while he’s ahead, the day after Motz allowed the birthday appearance, Stollof asked to be allowed to exercise at Sinai Fitness, the medically-staffed gym near his house, four times a week, as has been his practice for several years.

“Many people, felons and law-abiding citizens alike, have cardiac conditions, and many treat their conditions without the luxury conditions defendant seeks here,” Nancy McMillen of the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice wrote in response, opposing the requested modifications. “Defendant provides no reason why he could not exercise within the confines of his large home, walking around inside in lieu of using a treadmill and using the stairs in lieu of an elliptical machine.”

Stollof also sought to have otherwise prohibited contact with Nusbaum and co-defendant Steven L. Berman, who was sentenced to two-years probation, to “disentangle” himself from their “pre-existing business relationships,” a request McMillen also opposed. Motz agreed with McMillen on both counts.

Undaunted, Stollof made yet another request, arguably his boldest yet, late last month. Again citing his poor health, Stollof asked to spend the second half of his home detention – Dec. 15 through May 15 – in Palm Beach, Florida. He attached letters from his doctors, both of which said it was in his medical best interest.

As you might imagine, McMillen wasn’t interested. She questioned the medical necessity for Stollof to continue his annual snow bird migration to South Florida and alluded to the pattern of the defendant’s requests.

“He now seeks to prevent any disruption to that lifestyle notwithstanding the serious crime to which he pleaded guilty,” McMillen wrote.

In a paragraph-long memo Monday, Motz denied Stollof’s bid to avoid the Baltimore winter.

Now, as someone who has ridden his bike to work the past couple of days, I understand why Stollof might want to head south to gentler climes. (I’d love to flee to South Florida right now – it’s this damn job that’s holding me back.) But as someone who believes white-collar criminals should be punished, not sent to their second home in Florida when it gets cold outside their main mansions, I’m glad Judge Motz kept Stollof in Charm City with the rest of us.