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Sentencing for former Eagle Mountain mayoral candidate Richard Culbertson and his wife, Kathleen, was postponed Thursday to give attorneys an opportunity to sort through issues relating to how much restitution the couple owes.
Richard Culbertson pleaded guilty in June to three felony counts of communications fraud and one count of pattern of unlawful activity for using the names of their daughter and son-in-law to obtain home loans. Kathleen Culbertson pleaded guilty to the same charges as misdemeanors. Defense attorney Greg Skordas did not dispute that the two would owe restitution for defaulting on the loans, but said they should not be ordered to pay the full $1.2 million recommended in a pre-sentencing report from Adult Probation and Parole.
Skordas said the report did not take into account the value of four houses purchased with the loans that have been foreclosed on but not yet sold. The proceeds from the sale of the houses would cover a significant portion of the $1.2 million in loans that the Culbertsons defaulted on, Skordas said.
In recommending that the Culbertsons pay the full restitution for $1.2 million in loans, Skordas said the report presumes that the houses have no value.
"There's going to be a loss, but it's not $1 million. It will probably be a tenth of that," Skordas said.
Skordas also said the substantially higher restitution amount would make it more likely that Judge James Taylor would impose a stiffer penalty on the Culbertsons.
The pre-sentencing report recommends jail time, Skordas said, but that may be based on a presumption that they owe $1.2 million in restitution.
The Utah Attorney General's Office, which prosecuted the case, disagreed. Paul Murphy, a spokesman for the Attorney General's Office, said prosecutors will ask Taylor to have the Culbertsons pay the full $1.2 million. When the houses are sold, the money will go toward that balance, he said.
"They are responsible for this mess, and until those houses are sold they will be held responsible. If the houses sell, then the amount of restitution that they need to pay will be diminished," Murphy said. "We think those houses will sell."
If the Culbertsons paid back the entire sum before the houses sold, Murphy said the money would go back to them. But Murphy considered that scenario unlikely.
"My guess is by the time the houses have sold [the Culbertsons] have not paid off that entire amount," he said.
Taylor rescheduled Thursday's sentencing hearing for Aug. 21. Richard faces 1 to 15 years in prison for each of his felony charges, and Kathleen up to one year in jail for each of her misdemeanor counts.
The Culbertsons pleaded guilty to their charges after being accused of using the names of Ashley and Nathan Barnum, their daughter and son-in-law, to obtain several home loans, and of inflating their income on the loan applications by more than $10,000 a month.
Richard Culbertson was a mayoral candidate in Eagle Mountain in 2007. He was defeated by Heather Jackson.
• Jeremy Duda can be reached at 344-2561 or
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