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SAN FRANCISCO -- Barry Bonds, baseball's home run champion, avoided a prison term Friday when a federal judge sentenced him to 30 days of house arrest, 2 years of probation, 250 hours of community service with youth groups and a $4,000 fine for providing evasive testimony to a federal grand jury eight years ago. Bonds's lawyers stated their intention to appeal the guilty verdict, and the judge, Susan Illston of United States District Court, agreed to stay the sentence through the appeal process. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

CORRECTION APPENDED ON Feb. 2, 2004, Marlo Kidd awaited sentencing before Judge Denny Chin of Federal District Court in Manhattan. She had pleaded guilty to acting as a lookout for two masked gunmen who had robbed a bank in Yonkers, and under federal sentencing guidelines, she faced a prison term of up to six years. Her lawyer, though, was asking the judge to sentence her only to home confinement, because she was raising five children who ranged in age from 5 to 13, and also caring for her 14-year-old sister, as their own mother had been a crack-cocaine addict. He had said that sending Ms. Kidd to prison would almost certainly result in her children being placed in foster care, destroying what was left of the family. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Denny Hecker, a ubiquitous presence in Minnesota who once owned 26 auto dealerships, was sentenced Friday to a maximum 10 years in prison for fraud. Judge Joan Ericksen of Federal District Court denied a defense request for eight years, saying Mr. Hecker deserved the sentence for his pattern of lying and concealing assets in the implosion of his empire. Judge Ericksen said he told the truth only when backed into a corner. ''It all adds up to -- you don't get a break,'' Judge Ericksen said. Mr. Hecker, 58, of Medina, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of bankruptcy fraud. Prosecutors said he cheated lenders out of tens of millions of dollars so he could support a high-flying lifestyle. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Calling a former Queens woman's acts ''diabolical in nature,'' a federal judge in Manhattan sentenced her to more than 10 years in prison on Tuesday for a fraudulent scheme in which she adopted 11 disabled children under four aliases, while collecting $1.68 million meant for their care to support a lavish lifestyle. The judge, Richard M. Berman of United States District Court, said he agreed with federal prosecutors that the woman, Judith Leekin, 63, used the children as pawns in the scheme, in which she received government adoption subsidies that continued after she moved to Florida a decade ago and lasted until 2007, when her fraud was discovered. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]