After serving just over six months of her sentence, haredi filmmaker Wendy Weiner Runge, convicted of scamming the tens of thousands of dollars from the State of Iowa's film support program, has reportedly been granted parole.
Wendy Weiner Runge
After serving just over six months of her sentence, haredi filmmaker Wendy Weiner Runge, convicted of scamming the tens of thousands of dollars from the State of Iowa's film support program, has apparently been granted parole.
Runge pleaded guilty and would have received a very light sentence. But her defiance outside of court, her insistence after her plea that she had not committed any crimes, and her insistence that judges, prosecutors and the State of Iowa were punishing her due to anti-Semitism – and her supporters denial of her guilt (please see the image posted below) – combined with one of the most insincere allocutions in the history of American jurisprudence made that impossible.
Citing Runge's “complete, arrogant and defiant” way of denying responsibility for her crimes and her insincerity, Judge Douglas Staskal sentenced Runge to a prison sentence that could have run as long as 10-years.
But in May, Iowa's parole board recommended that Runge be granted parole.
It appears that parole could not be granted until Runge had served at least six months of her sentence. That milestone was reached earlier this week.
Runge could be home in the Minneapolis suburb of St. Louis Park in time for Shabbat.
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