Gardner Sentenced to 22 Years
By FALLS CHURCH TIMES STAFF
September 7, 2012
Michael Gardner, a former chairman of the Falls Church City Democratic Committee and the husband of former mayor and city councilor Robin Gardner, was sentenced to 22 years in prison Friday.
The sentence comes four months after Mr. Gardner was convicted of three charges of sexual abuse involving young girls. The charges were filed following sleepovers at his Ellison Street home. Three of his daughter’s friends alleged he had molested them during the sleepovers, which took place in June 2011.
Mr. Gardner has denied and continues to deny the charges, as does Robin Gardner. His attorney, Peter Greenspun is appealing the verdict.
“I was falsely accused and wrongly convicted of crimes I did not commit,” Gardner said prior to the imposition of the sentence.
Robin Gardner said she continues to believe in her husband’s innocence.
“I have no doubt that my husband did not commit these crimes he has been found guilty of and I will stand by him,” she said, according to a WJLA-TV report.
A variety of local television stations and other media were in the court room and have more information on the case.
By Stephen Siegel
September 7, 2012
Now Mr. Gardner can and will have the time to write those weird articles full-time for the FCNP……smile.
Give me a break…..his innocence would mean 3 girls conspired on such a serious matter and then stuck with their story for a year or more.
Who are these 60 people who wrote to the judge (as reported in the Washington Post) praising Gardner and asking for him to get off scot-free? The local Falls Church News-Press hasn’t covered that angle of the story at all, suggesting Owner-Editor Nicholas Benton was one of the letter writers. Didn’t Gardner used to be a FCNP staffer?
Editors’ Note: After closing his blog Blueweeds, Mr. Gardner wrote a column in the Falls Church News-Press in 2010-11. The identity of the letter writers probably would be part of the record of the trial, available through the Court.