Court - Judge tossed out TV privileges for wrong reasons

NEW YORK -- A man sentenced to home detention without television won his legal fight for TV privileges Wednesday, but he may have to watch from prison.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw out Edward Bello's 10-month sentence because the judge who imposed it said he was trying to force "deprivation and self-reflection" on the convicted credit-card thief.

Although limiting luxuries in home detention sentences is acceptable, doing so to promote self-reflection and remorse exceeds the district court's discretion, the appeals court found.

The court ordered Bello to be resentenced, meaning he could get prison time for his crime: conspiracy to steal credit cards and make unauthorized purchases.

U.S. District Court Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein had ordered Bello, 60, to serve the TV-less sentence in December.

Bello, a vending machine repairman with seven televisions in his home, said at sentencing that was willing to go without television for 10 months. But he appealed less than a week later, saying the sentence was not reasonably related to the crime.

The appeals court agreed with Bello's lawyer, who said his client could avoid the introspection Hellerstein had sought in any of several ways, including listening to the radio or going on the Internet.

Referring to Bello's 30-year history of petty crimes, the appeals court wrote, "For all the record shows or the district court has found, Bello is as likely to occupy his mind by planning his next crime as anything else."

A lawyer for Bello did not immediately return a telephone message.