Send cards, letters, certain types of books and subscriptions to magazines or newspapers — but don’t send care packages — if you want to ease Kevin McCarty’s eight-month federal prison sentence.

So advises McCarty’s wife, former Palm Beach County Commissioner Mary McCarty, in an e-mail to friends this week as Kevin McCarty reported to a federal lockup in Miami for his role in his wife’s public corruption.

In her e-mail, Mary McCarty called it a “tough day” as her husband went to prison.

More tough days are coming soon. McCarty, who resigned in January and pleaded guilty in March to honest-services fraud, is to be sentenced next week for her misdeeds. She could face five years in prison, but has asked that she be incarcerated for no more than a year and a day.

Mary McCarty’s e-mail advised friends of some dos and don’ts now that Kevin McCarty is in prison.

According to the e-mail:

“He is NOT allowed care packages, but is allowed to receive letters and cards. He is also allowed to receive books. However, they must be from a warehouse like Amazon, Barnes and Noble, etc. In other words they must come from a third party shipper. The only other things he can receive are subscriptions to newspapers and magazines.”

Her e-mail goes on to say that, with limited space to store personal items, the McCartys are trying to coordinate how many books Kevin McCarty gets and when he gets them. There is a reference to a reading list “that may be of help when selecting a book or subscription to send.”

Her e-mail concludes: “Today is a tough day. However, it is the beginning of the end of this chapter and that is a good thing.”

Tags: Kevin McCarty, Mary McCarty, public corruption

This entry was posted on Friday, May 29th, 2009 at 8:37 am and is filed under Palm Beach County commission. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.