The former tax collector for Seminole County, Joel Greenberg, was sentenced to 11 years in prison on Thursday. He found out his fate in a courtroom in the Middle District of Florida in the second day of sentencing proceedings.

Jonathan Rose, an Orlando-based trial attorney not affiliated with the Greenberg case, told Spectrum News 13 on Wednesday that the judge has a fair amount of sway over sentencing in cases like this.

“The final determination of what the sentence is, is entirely up to the judge. The plea agreement between Mr. Greenberg and the government is really just a set of recommendations between the two,” Rose said.

“And while the court did grant the downward departure due to his substantial assistance, the court has the ability to either very upward or very downward, depending on whether he thinks there’s significant mitigating information, meaning he should be sentenced to lower sentence or aggravating information, in this case, about the facts of the crimes that Greenberg committed that would cause him to sentence him above the required sentencing range.”

To read the full Spectrum News article, click here.