Peter Pocklington, Ex-Owner of the Edmonton Oilers, Sentenced to Six Months of House Arrest
Peter Pocklington, the former owner of the Edmonton Oilers…perhaps most notorious for trading the then Oilers superstar Wayne Gretzky to the Los Angeles Kings back in 1988…was recently convicted of perjury charges. The U.S. federal judge who sentenced Pocklington for lying on his 2008 bankruptcy application ordered the defendant to serve six months under California house arrest instead of the 12-16 month jail sentence he would have otherwise faced.
In California, house arrest...interchangeably referred to as home detention, home confinement, or electronic monitoring…is a sentencing option that may be imposed in lieu of a jail or prison sentence. House arrest is not automatically offered by sentencing judges. It is a sentence that must be requested based on appropriate circumstances.
In Pocklington’s case, the judge agreed to impose house arrest based on the fact that this was Pocklington’s first offense and that he has an “extraordinary history of philanthropy.”
This is one of the reasons why it is critical to have a California defense attorney who knows the most convincing arguments to persuade a judge that house arrest is a better option than incarceration. This is a perfect case in point – six months home detention instead of up to 16 months in jail.
