Jefferson City lawyer James D. "Doug" Barding, 63, will spend one month in federal prison for his role in two marriage fraud cases.
U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Bough ordered the prison time - plus a one-year supervised probation and a $3,000 fine - during the last of three sentencing hearings Monday at the Jefferson City federal courthouse.
"It appears that (you) were a leader in this conspiracy," Bough told Barding and his attorney, Chris Slusher of Columbia.
U.S. Attorney Tammy Dickinson's office noted in a news release that Barding pleaded guilty last Aug. 4 to "enlisting a U.S. citizen to marry co-defendant Darya Chernova," so that she could "remain in the United States and seek citizenship."
In separate hearings, Bough on Monday also ordered three years probation and $1,000 fines for:
• Chernova, now 41 - another Ukrainian national who once attended and played tennis for Lincoln University but now lives in Chandler, Arizona - and who had been Barding's mistress. She and Barding had two daughters together - with the first one born about nine months after she married Tim Dunville in Cape Girardeau County on March 13, 2005.
Dunville, a former Helias High School teacher who never was charged in the marriage cases, but was identified as "T.D." in some court documents, never lived with Chernova.
But both filled out federal forms as though they were together, including identifying Dunville, not Barding, as the babies' father.
Dickinson's news release said the investigations began after Dunville's ex-girlfriend approached law enforcement and the Missouri Bar about what she thought was a fraudulent marriage.
"The letters written by T.D.'s ex-girlfriend led to the initiation of investigations by the Missouri Bar's Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel (OCDC), local and federal law enforcement, and immigration authorities," Dickinson said.
• Patricia Anne Ewalt, 63, El Paso, Texas, and a former Jefferson City resident who married Oleksandr Nikolayevich Druzenko, now 35 and a Ukrainian national, in June 2007.
Dickinson noted: "Druzenko and Ewalt, along with Barding and Chernova, conspired to arrange a fraudulent marriage between Druzenko and Ewalt so that he could remain in the United States in violation of the law."
Last November, Bough sentenced Druzenko to time served and placed him on two years probation so that, "if you come back to this country, you will fall back under my jurisdiction. I strongly urge you not to return."
Druzenko has returned to the Ukraine.
Before imposing his sentence, Bough told Barding: "The entire legal community has been watching this case. Your conduct has been widely known, reported in the newspapers and in Missouri Lawyers Weekly (a specialty newspaper for lawyers).
"Every lawyer in the state has gossiped about you."
Bough noted the other three people charged in the cases had received probation, but told Barding, "I'm not going to give you probation. If members of our profession don't follow the law ... we have to clean out our own house."
Bough and Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Gonzales agreed that, under federal sentencing guidelines, Barding's case fell in the 10-16 months range, not the zero-6 months range that was used.
But, Bough noted, the U.S. Attorney's office's plea agreement with Barding included the government's pledge "to recommend that the defendant be sentenced at the low end of the applicable (federal sentencing) guidelines range."
Bough explained: "I want lawyers to be able to negotiate in good faith."
The Missouri Supreme Court suspended Barding's law license in October.
The Missouri court's rules require the Office of Chief Disciplinary Counsel to file "a motion to discipline, together with a certified copy of the judgment," once the pending case is "finally disposed," making the lawyer "subject to discipline by (the Supreme) Court without the requirement of any other proceeding."
Barding has practiced criminal, family, civil and juvenile law in Jefferson City since January 1998.
Slusher told Bough that Barding "has been disbarred" and, for all intents and purposes, "is done" as a lawyer.
With almost a dozen fellow lawyers watching, Barding told the judge: "I have no one to blame but myself."
He said the problems began "in a period of my life when a lot of things were going on."
Barding also said he was "ashamed to stand in front of my colleagues and supporters" and be sentenced in the case.
• Before Barding's hearing, Ewalt told Bough: "I regret everything that has happened. I trusted somebody (Barding) I should not have."
But, she added: "My decision to marry (Druzenko) was my own. I knew that he was young ... I believed he could take care of me."
• Chernova also faces deportation.
In addition to bachelor's and master's degrees from Lincoln University, Dickinson noted Chernova earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering in 2010, and a master's degree in mechanical and space engineering in 2011, from the University of Missouri.
She currently works for a contractor in Arizona who works for the federal government, and Bough told her: "We really don't want rocket scientists (like you) going to other countries."
Public defender Troy Stabenow added, with Barding's lost ability to practice law, Chernova "is the main support" of the two daughters, even though they still live in Jefferson City with Barding and his wife.
While he said Chernova "would be a perfect example" of the benefits of immigration "except for this," Bough told her: "I don't care where you come from - people know within themselves, right from wrong."
As for Nanette Barding's continuing support of her husband and Chernova's daughters, Bough said: "If anybody gets a gold star in this, it's her."