MONTICELLO — Monticello Mayor Gordon Jenkins and his girlfriend, Rochelle Massey, will pay $2,500 each in fines and additional restitution but won't do community service for selling fake Nike shoes and bogus DVDs out of Jenkins' Broadway store.
Judge Frank LaBuda sentenced Jenkins, 51, and Massey, 50, Monday in Sullivan County Court on five misdemeanor counts of trademark counterfeit. He followed the agreed-upon plea bargain but did not impose the maximum fine of $1,000 on each count or order community service hours, as recommended by District Attorney Jim Farrell.
Jenkins and Massey will also have to pay $1,848 in restitution to Nike, $235 to the state police for the balance of the undercover buy money and $350 to the humanitarian group World Vision, which is shipping the counterfeit sneakers to an impoverished nation in Africa. The shoes will be shipped to a country where Nike has no significant business dealings.
The sentencing lacked the drama of the arrest and early court proceedings, when Jenkins' attorney, Don Feerick Jr., argued the village's first black mayor was politically targeted.
Jenkins and Massey were handcuffed at their store and loaded into state police patrol cars in February 2010, originally charged with felony trademark counterfeit for peddling the fakes out of a back room. They pleaded guilty to the reduced charges in April, before numerous supporters. Jenkins has already retired as a state correction officer. Massey showed up holding a checkbook, ready to pay the fines.
Jenkins, in brief remarks, called the fines "excessive" but also apologized, promised to clean up his business and pledged to help people. His misdemeanor conviction means he will remain mayor.
"I am going to run again," Jenkins said in the hallway afterward. "It is another chapter of my life. I'll just turn the page."
LaBuda acknowledged the sentence might be viewed as "a slap on the wrist" but also praised Jenkins for admitting his guilt and avoiding a trial that could have divided the village.
"Mr. Jenkins, you did the right thing in this case," LaBuda said. "You stepped up and you 'fessed up."
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