Woman gets seven-year sentence in anthrax hoax

By David Waite
Advertiser Courts Writer

A 25-year-old Kalihi woman was sentenced to 7 1/4 years in federal prison yesterday for sending anthrax hoax letters to a Waikiki hotel and to the Honolulu Police Department at a time when the country was reeling in panic over real anthrax letters.

"I was selfish and foolish in not thinking about the consequences and impact it has caused to many innocent lives," Sharon Cardenas said. Advertiser library photo

Ezra said he felt compelled to send a message to Cardenas and the community.

"These kinds of acts — this kind of terrorism, because that's what it is — will not be tolerated in a free society," the judge said.

Federal prison terms do not carry parole.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth Sorenson urged Ezra to give Cardenas the longest term allowed under the sentencing guidelines, something he said he usually doesn't do when criminal defendants plead guilty.

"For a case where we don't have any blood on the ground, this was as callous and vicious a series of crimes as I can remember," Sorenson said.

The 12 to 14 letters Cardenas sent during an 18-month period amounted to "a long-term effort to destroy the life of another person," Sorenson said, referring to her boyfriend's mother Caridad Berzamina.

Officials who investigated and prosecuted the case said they believe Cardenas is the first person in the country to be sentenced under a federal law passed in the late 1990s that makes it a federal crime to threaten the use of a "weapon of mass destruction."

Cardenas pleaded guilty in September to sending a letter that threatened to harm someone through the U.S. Mail and sending two letters that claimed they contained anthrax spores.

One of the anthrax hoax letters was sent to the Honolulu Police Department's Criminal Investigation Division and resulted in a two-hour evacuation. The other was sent to the Marriott Waikiki Beach Resort where Berzamina worked. The letter to the hotel also resulted in an evacuation, one that lasted about three or four hours.

Investigators believe Cardenas had a grudge against Berzamina and used copies of Berzamina's signature taken from a birthday card to sign the threat and anthrax hoax letters in an attempt to frame Berzamina. Berzamina was fired from her job at the Marriott Waikiki but got it back later.

Cardenas yesterday tearfully apologized to the individuals and businesses that were the targets of the hoax letters and especially to Berzamina.

"I was selfish and foolish in not thinking about the consequences and impact it has caused to many innocent lives," Cardenas said.

She told Ezra that she has a 2-year-old daughter, who was only 10 months old when Cardenas was arrested as a suspect in the case.

"It breaks my heart each time I see her and she tells me, 'Mommy, come home,' " Cardenas said. (Berzamina's son is the father of Cardenas' daughter.)

Cardenas asked Ezra for leniency "on behalf of myself and my family" and told him she had no prior criminal convictions and has never abused drugs.

But Sorenson asked Ezra to consider what might have happened had Cardenas gotten away with framing Berzamina. Cardenas also lied under oath during an earlier hearing when she accused U.S. Postal Inspection Service agents Byron Dare and Chris McMurray of intimidating her into making a confession and failing to advise her of her constitutional rights prior to signing the statement.

Had the evidence not exonerated the two agents, they could have lost their careers and been subjected to perjury charges, Sorenson said.

Ezra described the case as "one of the most unusual and tragic" he has seen in his 16 years as a federal judge.

He said Cardenas sent out the hoax letters during the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks when people were dying from opening letters containing genuine anthrax spores.

However, the threatening letters began in April 2000 and at least one anthrax hoax was made before 9-11, Sorenson said.

Reach David Waite at dwaite@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8030.