What’s next? Todd and Julie Chrisley may not have the easiest time appealing their combined 19-year prison sentence, according to legal expert Neama Rhamani.“I don’t think this appeal has much chance of success,” the CEO of West Coast Trial Lawyers exclusively told Us Weekly on Tuesday, November 22, one day after the Chrisley Knows Best couple received their sentencing. “I understand that they’re blaming their former employee Mark [Braddock], but there’s tons of evidence of things that they did, including what they did for the grand jury, trying to obstruct justice.
And the problem with an appeal is you really need to appeal some sort of legal error — a mistake that the judge made. It’s very hard to appeal a question of fact a jury’s finding.”Rhamani continued: “In this particular case, the jurors thought that it was Todd and Julie who committed this fraud, not their former employee.”The attorney hinted that Braddock, who worked for Todd’s foreclosure-management businesses until 2012, is likely reliable. “When I was a former federal prosecutor, my two best sources of information were always exes, husbands, wives, boyfriends, girlfriends and former employees. … They know where the bodies are buried,” Rhamani said.Us confirmed on Monday, November 21, that Todd, 53, was ordered to 12 years in prison after being convicted on charges of tax evasion, bank fraud and conspiring to defraud the IRS in June.
Julie, 49, was sentenced to seven years. The pair will also have to serve 16 months of probation.Rhamani was “not surprised” by the length of the reality stars’ sentences, claiming Todd and Julie “tried to mislead the court at every turn” throughout their trial. “They first submitted false documents to the grand jury, then they
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