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Con artist James Hogue gets 10 years in prison

Caught with thousands of dollars in stolen merchandize

By Reilly Capps

The sentencing hearing for James Arthur Hogue was a small window into the life of one of America's most infamous con men, a man who seemed at once greedy and generous, compassionate and cold-hearted, a man whom the prosecutor painted as remorseless and his defense lawyer described as a media-created "myth."

Wearing handcuffs that chained his hands to his waist, his hair stringy and unkempt, Hogue, 47, appeared small and wiry, and showed no reaction as he was sentenced to 10 years in state prison Thursday.

He pled guilty in March to one count of theft by receiving. In return, his sentence was capped at 10 years.

District Judge James W. Schum said the 10-year sentence was an attempt to get Hogue's attention. Hogue has spent much of his life in trouble with the law, either for stealing or lying, once conniving his way into Princeton. Hogue has been the unwitting star of a documentary, featured on an HBO show, and been written about in the New Yorker.

"This is apparently some sort of mental illness you suffer from, some sort of obsessive personality trait that you have, but it's offensive and threatening," Schum said. "And it has to be stopped."

Hogue was given credit for serving 465 days in jail. He will be eligible for parole before half of the 10-year sentence is served.

When Hogue was given the opportunity to speak, he spoke in a wavering, whispery voice.

"I do apologize for all the trouble I've caused," Hogue said. "I've stolen some things, and I've also purchased some things that they turned out to be stolen - I think I believed they were [stolen] when I [bought them].

"It's hard to explain why I do this," he continued. "It's nothing that I can really understand myself. It's some sort of collection compulsion, I guess. I never disposed of any of the things. I never made any profit."

In January 2006, Mountain Village Police Department searched Hogue's house and found thousands of dollars worth of merchandise that had been stolen from area homes.

Hogue fled to Arizona, and was eventually arrested in a Tucson bookstore.

In court Thursday, Mountain Village Police Department Investigator Robert Walraven played phone conversations recorded in the Arizona jail.

In the calls, Hogue seems resigned to a long jail sentence, and was mostly worried about a woman who lives in Russia, a woman he said was his fiancée.

"I'm just trying to think about the girl," he tells his friend.

"You're [expletive] nuts," his friend says. "That's the least of your problems."

But Hogue was genuinely worried about her. How would he get her a visa to come to the United States? How would she take the news that he was in jail? Wouldn't she start worrying about him?

"This might be one of the better times to come clean," his nephew advises him in a separate phone call.

"How am I gonna do that?" Hogue says, seeming genuinely confused. "I don't know how to explain it Š She's a really really nice person and I have to figure out a way to get her out of this."

Then Hogue comes up with a solution.

"The only thing I can think to do is tell her I was killed in a car crash or in a coma," he tells his nephew. "I just can't keep her tied up like that. I might as well be dead to her."

He asks his nephew and friend to lie for him but they refuse.

Walraven saw in that call a continuation of Hogue's criminal behavior.

"He's not worried about all the criminal behavior, all he's worried about is what lie and con he can say to someone he claims to love," Walraven said. "His behavior has not changed for over 20 years. The only gaps in his criminal records are when he wasn't caught."

In the same phone calls, Hogue tries to convince his friend and nephew to get a hold of his credit cards and ATM cards and take out as much cash as possible.

"You can max 'em out," Hogue says. "Who's gonna care, you know?"

His friend objects that "you can't do that, it's against the law." But Hogue wonders "Why? How?"

In his San Bernardo house, Hogue was caught with more than $16,000 worth of merchandise belonging to Frank Sebree, a second homeowner from Kansas City. Wood belonging to Patrick Kurtz, co-owner of Telluride Woodworks, was found in Hogue's house. Both took the witness stand and asked that Hogue receive 10 years.

Deputy District Attorney Keri Yoder said that Hogue struck fear into the heart of the Mountain Village community.

"It's not just about stealing items, anything it seems that the defendant could get his hands on," Yoder said. "People were scared."

Three people wrote letters asking that Hogue be given leniency.

Hogue's lawyer, Harvey Palefsky, asked that he be sent to a community correction facility.

"Mr. Hogue has become a myth, a creation, in large part created by the media for their own ends. He's the famous con man of Cinemax fame," he said. "I don't think there's anyone that can argue that prison will be very good for anybody Š This was a theft. He's not a dangerous man."

Many of the items found in Hogue's house could not be matched to an owner, and his lawyer implied that Hogue had bought them legally.

Hogue asked that some of his belongings be given to his family. He asked that the building materials he was found with be given to Habitat for Humanity.

Palefsky called the sentence "a waste of talent and brainpower."

Mountain Village Police Chief Dale Wood said the sentence was "fair and just."

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