The deal Randy “Duke” Cunningham struck last fall in pleading guilty to conspiracy and tax evasion for accepting more than $2.4 million in bribes guarantees he won’t be sentenced to more than 10 years in prison. Whether the former congressman will get less than that today will be up to one man: a federal judge who was formerly a topnotch prosecutor experienced at handling highprofile
cases. U.S. District Judge Larry Alan Burns will be very analytical in making his decision, defense lawyer Robert Grimes said. “He was the best trial lawyer in the U.S. Attorney’s Office when he was in that office,” said Grimes, who faced off against Burns in court. Before becoming a federal prosecutor in 1985, Burns worked in the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office for six years. During his career, he prosecuted a minister who orchestrated the bombing of an abortion clinic; a woman who hired six Marines to kill her husband, a sergeant; and a car dealer who killed a salesman who sued him. “He has extremely high standards of conduct for people,” said Mario Conte, former head of San Diego Federal Defenders Inc., who also sometimes knocked heads with Burns. “Although he was a career prosecutor, I don’t get the sense that he, as a judge, has favored one side or another,” Conte said. “He also is willing to make tough calls.”
