{"id":2454842,"date":"2020-02-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-02-21T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=321299"},"modified":"2020-02-21T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-02-21T07:00:00","slug":"farrises-avoid-prison-apologize-after-theft-conviction-in-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/farrises-avoid-prison-apologize-after-theft-conviction-in-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Farrises avoid prison, apologize after theft conviction in court"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Every seat was filled in the courtroom Thursday when Judge Denise Lynch told Charles \u201cZane\u201d and Charla Farris they would have to complete probation, do community service and pay restitution \u2014 but would not receive not jail time.<\/p>\n

The Farrises were sentenced Thursday afternoon for taking between $5,000 and $20,000 from the ranch they had managed for Waffle House, Inc. chairman Joe Rogers.<\/p>\n

Judge Lynch sentenced each of the Farrises to five years supervised probation, 200 hours of community service, and to pay restitution in an amount to be determined later.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe court can see how full the courtroom is,\u201d Charla\u2019s attorney Andrew Ho said.<\/p>\n

He asked for those in the courtroom supporting Charla to stand, and more than 20 people stood up.<\/p>\n

If he called all of them to give statements of character, \u201cwe could be here all afternoon,\u201d Ho said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to let you call all of them. I have a basketball game to watch at 6:30 (p.m.),\u201d Judge Lynch joked.<\/p>\n

Both Farrises were convicted of the theft of Bear Wallow Ranch funds in November, but the jury settled on a far lesser degree of theft than what prosecutors alleged.<\/p>\n

After nearly six weeks of trial and three days of deliberation, the jury found the Farrises not guilty of the alleged theft of between $100,000 and $1 million, and exonerated them on multiple counts of cattle theft.<\/p>\n

Prosecutor Ben Sollars, who asked for one to three years in prison for the Farrises, said Thursday that the theft was \u201cnot on a one-time basis, but more of a death by a thousand cuts,\u201d and created a pattern of breach of trust.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are some aggravating factors that separate this out from other acts of theft,\u201d Sollars said.<\/p>\n

Judge Lynch disagreed, and said incarceration would not be appropriate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think sending (Charla) to prison is just going to make her a worse human being. It will punish for sure, but I don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to rehabilitate at all,\u201d Lynch said.<\/p>\n

Rogers, who owned and kept Bear Wallow as a corporate retreat house for many years, attended the sentencing hearing. He has also sued the Farrises in civil court for the alleged losses.<\/p>\n

The Farrises were sentenced separately, but each made a statement that they appreciated the time of the jury and judge in the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very sorry for the mistakes I have made, and I know that those mistakes led me here,\u201d Charla Farris said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI apologize to anyone and everyone,\u201d Zane Farris said.<\/p>\n

During the trial, defense attorneys alluded to class distinctions, and that continued in the sentencing hearing.<\/p>\n

In this case, \u201cthe word of one person with a lot of money and power obviously meant more than the word of one family\u201d who was part of the community, Zane Farris\u2019 defense attorney Kathy Goudy said.<\/p>\n

Zane Farris was most relieved to be acquitted of the counts of stealing cattle, Goudy said, since he continues to work as a cattleman.<\/p>\n

Monica Groom, an attorney who did not represent either of the Farrises, said in a statement to the court that Zane Farris and Charla Farris are beloved members of the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are two individuals who would do anything for you,\u201d Groom said.<\/p>\n

tphippen@postindependent.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every seat was filled in the courtroom Thursday when Judge Denise Lynch told Charles \u201cZane\u201d and Charla Farris they would have to complete probation, do community service and pay restitution \u2014 but would not receive not jail time. The Farrises were sentenced Thursday afternoon for taking between $5,000 and $20,000 from the ranch they had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2454842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 14:15:41","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2454842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2454842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2454842\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2454842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2454842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2454842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}