Among those looking on was a Mesa woman who had expected her investments to cushion her retirement years. She now sells homemade bread to help pay the bills. There were the parents of a handicapped woman from whom Pomerenke had ripped off $40,000.
And there was Milt Heinemann--the guy who had had the misfortune to meet Pomerenke's dad on a golf course.
To this day, no one but Pomerenke has faced criminal charges in the scam. His parents--who are said to be managing a small motel in a Missouri town--denied wrongdoing in a civil suit filed by many of the investors against them and John. Prosecutor Sherry Stephens says investigation into the scam "is continuing."
A few months earlier, prosecutors had agreed to let Pomerenke plead guilty to two theft counts. Each charge carries a maximum sentence of ten years, but Pomerenke's plea bargain called for the chance of parole after five years. Adult-probation officer Preston Dobbins opposed the deal--that rarely happens in the county's criminal-justice system--and recommended the maximum sentence. "One cannot help but be filled with a sense of outrage," Dobbins wrote in his presentencing report.
He cited the case of a retired Canadian couple who spent winters in the Valley, sold their family farm in Alberta and invested almost everything--it came to $462,000. "We are only able to buy a small amount of food to what we are used to," the couple had written Dobbins. "Life is like being a prisoner."
Judge Reinstein asked Pomerenke if he wanted to say anything.
Pomerenke mouthed the right words--sorry," "forgive," "forget"--before concluding, "I look forward to get out and start paying back to the investors."
It was time for the victims to have their say.
"There are people dependent upon social security now," said investor Jack Sample, who lost about $34,000. "For a man to hide behind a fa‡ade of bilking the people under Christianity is about the lowest I think a man can go."
Marvie Nothstine called Pomerenke's scam "just a smaller scale of Keating. . . . How is he ever going to pay restitution? He doesn't even have a high school education!"
Not everyone, however, was there to condemn Pomerenke.
"We volunteered on our own to give him the money," said Mesa resident Susan Bingold, drawing hoots from the others. "As investors, we are also guilty for not calling for an audit on his company. We all went on faith, myself included and our family. . . . We all are as guilty as John in some areas."
That was more than many in the courtroom could take.
"Give me a break, lady," someone yelled at Bingold, bringing a caution from Judge Reinstein.
Investor Roy Francis demanded a life sentence.
"That was our life savings," he said, addressing Pomerenke directly. "Now, we are at square one. We have nothing. We are starting all over."
It was the judge's turn. Reinstein told Pomerenke he had considered rejecting the plea bargain, but that he would go along with the deal.
"Remorse just doesn't cut it at this point in time," the judge told Pomerenke, before ordering him to the state prison. Pomerenke will be 30 years old when he becomes eligible for parole.
