Jim O'Hearn looks pretty darn good for having spent five years in the pokey.
The man who embezzled more than $2 million from factory workers, a church janitor and some 80 other poor and trusting souls has a very nice tan.
He was wearing a headset when he answered the door of the Milwaukee condo he now lives in, although I couldn't tell what he was listening to.
Maybe, if a federal prosecutor's motion to send the former Jackson buffalo farmer back to prison is a fair indication, the traffic reports.
O'Hearn, U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic accuses, has been doing a bit of unacceptable traveling.
I don't know if during an alleged trip last April to an Indiana riverboat casino he won or lost, but it was one heckuva gamble.
In addition to 71 months in prison and $2.4 million in restitution, Federal Judge Charles Clevert ordered three years of supervised release when he sentenced O'Hearn back in 1999. Because he's only been out of prison for about a year and wasn't supposed to leave the eastern part of Wisconsin without his probation agent's permission, two years of that supervised release could now be revoked. He could, quite easily, end up back behind bars.
"Good," said one of his victims, an Ozaukee County woman who, along with her husband, lost about $140,000.
"If he had enough money to gamble," she added, "then he ought to be paying a little more restitution."
She and her husband eventually recouped about half of their loss from financial institutions that, a civil suit alleged, O'Hearn used to carry out his schemes. They also received $400 in other restitution earlier this year, although she was not sure exactly where the money came from.
Hey, maybe the guy had some luck on the slots. Although, it now appears, his luck may have run out.
Clevert said in 1999 that he found what O'Hearn did "reprehensible" and would have given him a harsher sentence if federal sentencing guidelines had allowed it. If O'Hearn's lucky, the judge will have forgotten him by now although others clearly haven't.
"Where is he?" asked the woman who lost $140,000. "Do you know?"
Life is full of strange little ironies. The condo he is living in on Villard is part of a complex known as "Georgetown," which coincidentally also happens to be the name of the investment and financial services company he once used in his ruse.
Despite not having a securities license, he used Georgetown to convince people to invest in financial funds. Then, in one of his schemes, he embezzled some of the money and used it to pay bills for a buffalo farm he had in the Town of Jackson.
The little condo is a far cry from the farm. There's no real yard, just a small concrete patio out back. Built in 1960, it has three bedrooms and a bath-and-a-half. If you didn't know better, you'd think it part of an apartment building. It is assessed at only $44,500.
Somebody else is listed in city records as owning the place, so I'm guessing that O'Hearn rents.
"Where," asked his victim, "does he get the money to rent?"
O'Hearn closed the door Monday before I could ask him where he gets his cash or, for that matter, where he spends it. The only so- called riverboat in Hammond is the Horseshoe Casino, which actually sits on Lake Michigan, so I'm guessing that's part of the answer.
They have 2,000 slots, plus everything from blackjack to craps to baccarat to roulette you know, high stakes stuff.
That's where I envision Jim O'Hearn. Losing.
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