Former Maple Grove City Council Member LeAnn Sargent was sentenced to additional probation time during a court-ordered resentencing hearing Tuesday in Hennepin County District Court.

Sargent, 65, was sentenced last year to a gross misdemeanor for exploiting her dying father, cheating him out of more than $120,000. But the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled in February that the sentence was unjustifiably lenient, leading to Tuesday's action.

Her original sentence was four months in the workhouse and on home monitoring and two years' probation. She has already served her time in the workhouse, but now will serve a total of five years' probation — a sentence County Attorney Mike Freeman called more fitting for Sargent's felony-level crime.

Her attorney, Chris Ritts, said Tuesday that he believes Sargent has paid most of the money back.

"I'm disappointed she received more probation," he said. "She's not going to reoffend. She got punished. It should be done. This is political."

But Freeman countered that Sargent committed a felony against a vulnerable adult, and that the early, lesser sentence handed down by Judge Luis Bartolomei wasn't acceptable.

Sargent had argued that she deserved the lighter sentence because she took responsibility for the crime, had no criminal record and was in poor health. Bartolomei told her when he sentenced her for a gross misdemeanor that he did so in part so she could remain on the council.

Because her first sentence was a misdemeanor, she was able to stay on the council for the time it stood, prompting protests from many Maple Grove residents who believed she should have stepped down.

But the county attorney's office successfully filed an appeal, arguing that the sentence didn't meet state sentencing guidelines because the amount of money Sargent stole was 100 times more than the statutory limit for a gross misdemeanor crime.

A felony conviction automatically disqualifies Sargent from public office. After serving on the Maple Grove City Council for 24 years, she resigned in April from her $13,000-a-year seat.

Tuesday's hearing was before Judge Toddrick Barnette, who made it clear that he wanted Sargent's new sentence to adhere to the Court of Appeals order.

Both this time and at the original sentencing, the county attorney's office had asked for 20 years' probation. Ritts called that request "absurd" because of Sargent's age and failing health.

David Chanen • 612-673-4465