Wake County Superior Court tacked on an addition 11 to 14 months to Former State Speaker of the House Jim Black's already 63-month federal sentence.

Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens said he can serve the additional time concurrently with the federal sentence.

"Mr. Black's situation has changed significantly ... He is an old man who is sick and will stay in prison perhaps the rest of his life," Stephens said.

Lawyers and friends of the former lawmaker have been working to get him out early because of his deteriorating health. However the judge said the state sentence will not be shortened if Black is allowed out of federal prison early.

"I would say there's some disappointment ... If we can get something accomplished with the President or the bureau of prisons, [then] we'll have to do further work to try to see if [we] can prevail upon the powers that be to get him out [at the state level]," Black's attorney, Whit Powell, said. "But we'll keep working."

The sentencing took a back seat to Stephens' comments regarding Black's financial penalties. The judge spent more than 10 minutes calling out a Wake County School Board member from the bench.

"In my 25 years on the bench I've never seen anything quite like that. It makes no sense," Stephens said. "It's a little bit idiotic."

His frustration was over comments by School Board member Ron Margiotta that appeared in Thursday's News & Observer questioning Stephens' decision to approve property in lieu of cash for half of Black's million-dollar fine.

By law, those types of fines are filtered to the local school district.

The District Attorney did not ask for the fine to be added to Black's sentence; Stephens tacked it on himself.

Black's Mecklenberg County land has been assessed at $500,000 and is already deeded to the Wake County School Board.

"Why bother to bestow the gift if the recipient is going to complain?" Stephens said. "It's sort of like me giving my daughter a Toyota, and having her tell me, 'Gee Dad, I'd really rather have a BMW.'"

"I would never question his authority as a judge," Margiotta said. "No more than I want him to question my responsibility as a school board member."

Margiotta said his main complaint is that the school board's own attorneys never notified him of the change in such a high profile, politically-charged situation.

That being said, he's still wary of the decision.

"I think I would have objected to accepting property versus accepting cash," Margiotta said. "We're not in the property business -- we're in the school, the education business."

That's the only reason Stephens says he's still willing to work out fines like this in the future, despite it all.

"This goes ultimately to the school kids of Wake County," Stephens said. "They deserve the money. So it's worth the effort."

Black is scheduled to be released in 2012.

The U.S. Bureau of Prisons moved Black last week from a Pennsylvania prison to one in Georgia, which is closer to his family.

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