Former mayor embezzled millions, gambled away millions in spree

Story here. This is actually really quite a sad story. I hesitated to post it. But it's these marginal cases that really challenge thinking and standards (or possible double-standards). What do you all think, would she be getting the same soft-glove handling if she were a he? Or would it be all the same given her health problems/loss of her mate, which may well have contributed to her behavior. Both extreme grief and brain tumors can be causes of manic behavior, but are men less likely to be shown mercy with these as factors vs. women? What do you all think? Excerpt:

'LOS ANGELES — A former mayor of San Diego spent the last decade wagering more than a billion dollars at casinos across the country, eventually liquidating her savings, auctioning her belongings, selling off real estate, borrowing from friends and taking more than $2 million from a charity set up by her late husband, a fast-food tycoon.

The former mayor, Maureen O’Connor, 66, blamed an addiction to gambling aggravated by a brain tumor for the gargantuan spree. Her lawyers said that while she had made well over a billion dollars in bets at casinos in Las Vegas, Atlantic City and San Diego, her actual net losses were around $13 million.

Federal prosecutors said it was impossible to know precisely how much Ms. O’Connor had lost over those years, but she emerged with her fortune gone and her health shattered. She took out second and third mortgages on her La Jolla, Calif., home to pay for the gambling.
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Under an agreement with federal prosecutors, she will receive treatment for gambling addiction and has two years repay the money to the foundation, as well as taxes owed to the government. Prosecutors cited her health as the main reason for the deal.“Right now she is in a very poor financial state,” said Eugene Iredale, her lawyer. He said, “This is a woman who has been through real trauma.”'