Courtney Stadd Joins Liam Sarsfield In Pleading Guilty

I stand behind my long time friend and colleague Courtney at this sad time in his life. I hope that the judge considers his many years of faithful public service, his wife and family, when making the final decision as to sentence.

Got to love that good ole boy network. It's ok for him to profit off the taxpayers. He's a good boy with public service (that he got paid for).

"netting himself about $270,000 in illegal profits."

"Faithful public service"?????. More like faithful self service. I hope he gets the maximum sentence allowed by law for ripping off and violating the trust of the taxpayers.

How anyone can excuse and minimize this type of behavior is beyond common sense.

Sorry Frank, but you can't have it both ways. I have seen you post here about the problems, corruption, and waste within NASA. And rightly so. But now, just because it happened that a friend of yours was on the take, and clearly admitting to conspiracy, doesn't mean you should stop holding PEOPLE accountable. I thought a journalist was supposed to be unbiased? Moreover, if he is actually pleading guilty to this charge, that gets the wheels turning about what else he may have been guilty of, and the authorities may have threatened him with, to get him to cop the plea that he did. There are many crooks in government positions. They are NOT faithful public servants. And they do not deserve our respect, or a judge's leniency.

All I can say is he's a friend. I have no idea of the merits of the case against him. I know him to be a devoted husband and father, which I hope counts for something.
What would all of you do if a friend of yours was in a similar situation? Run the other way?

There's nothing dishonourable about standing by a friend, even if he did wrong, as Stadd now appears to have admitted doing. Without knowing the facts it's impossible to know if leniency if called for.