12 Years in Prison for Stealing Quarters? 'Absurd' But True

CHICAGO, IL — If WTF and SMH were legal terms, the appellate court judges who heard the case of Harley Busse may well have used such language to describe their decision to knock down the petty thief's 12-year sentence in the state penitentiary.

Busse was put behind bars for a decade-plus-two for stealing $44 in quarters from a coffee machine at the University of Illinois at Chicago campus in 2012. He used a bent coat hanger to empty the machine of quarters, but he was spotted by a campus police officer who recognized him from past vending-machine thefts.

Still, without resorting to the colloquial, the appellate judges made clear their dismay at the punishment handed down to Busse by the trial judge, calling the sentence "absurd." After all, this change thief was no safecracker and never committed a violent act in his life.

"A paltry crime for a paltry sum does not warrant the unpaltry sentence of 12 years. We hold that the trial court did abuse its discretion in sentencing Busse, and we impose a six-year sentence," the appellate court wrote in a decision delivered this week. "Twelve years of imprisonment is grossly disproportionate to the offense of stealing $44 in loose change from a vending machine. Busse did not 'break in' to the UIC building; he apparently walked inside during the middle of the day. Busse was not armed and did not use a weapon of any sort. No UIC students were threatened or harmed during his theft. He did not even damage the vending machines. It is difficult to conceive of an argument that Busse deserves 12 years in prison due to the seriousness of his offense."

Emptying the UIC coffee machine of 176 quarters was not Busse's first crime, however. And he's more than a three-time loser. Busse is a "career" petty thief with a penchant for small-change capers. He's been convicted of burglary, attempted burglary and theft 28 times and served time behind bars on 23 occasions. Since the age of 12, Busse has held no fewer than 20 jobs, according to court documents, but was unable to hold onto any of them. Sticking wire coat hangers up the change chute of a vending machine apparently was what he did best.

When he hit the UIC coffee machine on July 31, 2012, the 40-year-old homeless man already was persona non grata on campus. He'd been caught ripping off machines there in 2009 and was banned from campus. An officer recognized him, saw him carrying a black briefcase, and took him into custody for trespassing, according to court documents. The officers discovered that his briefcase was full of loose quarters. A video showing a man matching his description plunging a wire coat hanger into the coffee machine led to a charge of burglary at a school — a Class 1 felony punishable by 4 to 15 years in prison.

At trial, a vending machine expert with 33 years experience inspecting machines testified against Busse. The expert noted the thief only took quarters but left behind the nickels and dimes. He made off with 176 quarters, and apparently had to stop because three quarters got stuck in the tube.

At sentencing, his brother offered to set him up with a job, and his counsel noted, along with his lack of a violent criminal history, that his mother in Minnesota was gravely ill with leukemia and could die while he was serving a lengthy prison term.

The judge who sentenced him, Cook County Judge Michael B. McHale, saw the facts of the crime were not "particularly egregious" but saw no need to weigh mitigating factors of his troubled past.

"Nothing up to this point has made an impression upon you, maybe my 12-year sentence will make an impression on you," McHale said.

Because the crime was committed at a school, and because Busse had a lengthy record, the judge was obligated under the state's sentencing laws to consider Class X felony sentencing for a repeat offender. Busse could have gotten as many as 30 years behind bars.

The appellate court's reduction of the sentence to six years was delivered on Tuesday.

“This is unjust, not just to Busse, but to a public that will see this sentence and feel no confidence that our criminal justice system knows how to distinguish between a dangerous criminal and a homeless man who loots vending machines with a wire hanger,” Justice Michael B. Hyman wrote in the majority opinion, taking note that the crime appeared to be motivated by poverty. “Judges must keep in mind that poverty is not a crime; it is a condition, and every day presents a struggle for the poor to survive, to cope, to get by until tomorrow."

Hyman, in his 12-page opinion, also took a swipe at the legislature, which codifies sentencing guidelines into law.

"The trial court’s job is to construct a sentence that follows the law, and we do not expect trial courts to factor the costs of incarceration into that decision. But our legislature — the body that constrains our discretion to sentence people like Busse — should consider whether such lengthy and costly sentences are a good use of taxpayer dollars, where the ultimate price many times exceeds the social cost of the offense," Hyman wrote. "We can do nothing more for Busse in this case. But our legislature is certainly able to amend the Class X sentencing statute to encompass felons who are violent, or whose crimes escalate in seriousness and harm to the public, without also taking in defendants whose crimes remain petty."

photo: Illinois Department of Corrections