MINNEAPOLIS - Christi Rowan, wife of disgraced auto dealer Denny Hecker, is back in Minnesota after being released from a prison in Illinois.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons website confirms that Rowan has been released, and is now accountable to the Community Corrections office in Minneapolis.
Rowan served 10 months of a 14-month sentencefor bank fraud and theftat the federal facility in Greenville. The Federal Bureau of Prison's website lists her official release date as February 28 of 2012, but it is not unusual for a prisoner to be released earlier to acommunity corrections program to help them transition.
Richard Safra, community corrections manager for Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota, could not give KARE 11 specifics as far as where Rowan is or what program she must adhere to.
Safra did describe the process, saying that an inmate's program depends on the recommendation from their case manager at the federal prison. He said that Rowan is either at a halfway house, a jail facility, or on monitored home release.
She is receiving programing and required to work a job to ease her eventual transition back into society.
Rowan pleaded guilty to bank fraud and bankruptcy fraud in 2010 after admitting that she lied on a credit application to purchase a Land Rover for Hecker. Prosecutors said Rowan also spent thousands of dollars in gift cards that were supposed to be turned over to authorities.
She married Heckervia telephone on Feb. 22 of 2011. A marriage certificate filed in Hennepin County indicates the pair was married at Lord of Life Lutheran Church in Maple Grove.
Rowan was arrested the next day after visiting Hecker at the Sherburne County Jail after authorities learned she had violated terms of her release.
Denny Hecker is currently serving a 10-year sentence at the federal prison in Duluth.
