Earlier in the year Dr. Andrew G. Bodnar, a former executive of Bristol-Myers Squibb, plead guilty to charges that he made false statements to federal investigators concerning a patent dispute over the blood thinner Plavix. This Monday Dr. Bodnar's trial came to a strange end. The judge presiding over the case, Judge Ricardo M. Urbina, sentenced Dr. Bodnar to two years of probation during which he must write a book about his experience as a pharmaceutical executive and his involvement in the case. The book is to serve as a cautionary tale to other executives. Dr. Bodnar was also ordered to pay a fine of $5,000.
This is not the first time that Judge Urbina has ordered a defendant to write as penance. In 1998, he ordered lobbyist James H. Lake who plead guilty to making illegal corporate campaign contributions to write a monograph about federal laws and criminal provisions governing corporate campaign donations.
Some wonder if Judge Urbina was inspired by John Updike's book A Month of Sundays. In the book, it is revealed that Reverend Tom Marshfield is guilty of seducing several women in his parish. He stripped of his parochial duties, and is sent to Arizona for rehabilitation where he must write everyday from 9:00 am to noon.
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