By STEFANIE COHEN
June 19, 2008
Two jurors who convicted a Brooklyn pizzeria owner of downloading kiddie porn are outraged that a controversial federal judge gave the perv only a year in prison, The Post has learned.
Pietro Polizzi should have gotten five years under federal guidelines.
"Many of us on the jury are parents and grandparents . . . With such a light sentence, the defendant will be out much too soon," wrote juror Juliet Laquidara.
Polizzi, 54, was convicted last October of downloading thousands of images of child pornography, which comes with an automatic minimum five-year sentence.
But Judge Jack Weinstein declared a mistrial after five jurors told him they did not know about the mandatory-sentence rule.
He then threw out the top count - receipt of child porn - and sent Polizzi away for just a year.
Weinstein said he'd committed a constitutional error by not telling the jury about the mandatory sentence - a ruling that reverses mountains of case law.
Laquidara and juror, Paul Harris, were shocked by the judge's unorthodox move. In his letter, Harris insisted that the jurors "did know about . . . severity of punishment." Laquidara wrote, "I am very disappointed in the judicial system . . . and I do not look forward to serving jury duty again."
