HOUSTON -- Lea Fastow, wife of former Enron Corp. finance chief Andrew Fastow, walked out of federal prison early Monday morning with her soon-to-be-incarcerated husband at her side, Local 2 reported.

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Exclusive: Lea Fastow Talks After Release

Lea Fastow, who was serving a yearlong sentence for lying about income from an Enron deal on her tax return, was taken to a downtown Houston halfway house, where she will serve the remaining month of her sentence. She was charged with a misdemeanor.

Lea Fastow, 43, who had been a stay-at-home mother before going to prison, emerged at 4 a.m. Monday from a federal detention center in downtown Houston.

"It's been a tough year, but it's supposed to be a tough year," she told Local 2. "I am going home to my family soon and that's exactly what I'm looking forward to."

Dressed in a white knit shirt and jeans with a pink sweater folded over her arm, she was whisked away in a private car with her husband, sister and attorneys.

Fifteen minutes later, she checked in to the Lyondell Sanction Center, a 150-bed halfway house near Minute Maid Park. She will live there until her release July 10. Lea Fastow will be allowed to leave each day to work and then will return to center each night. She will not be allowed home visits.

"She's still serving her sentence," attorney Mike Degeurin said. "She realizes that she is going to have to support the family during the time that her husband, Andy, is incarcerated."

Andrew Fastow has pleaded guilty to conspiracy in the energy company's collapse in exchange for a 10-year prison term that was to be served after Lea Fastow's release. He also has agreed to help the prosecution in pending cases against Enron founder Kenneth Lay and former CEO Jeffrey Skilling.

Lea Fastow pleaded guilty in May 2004 to helping her husband hide ill-gotten income from financial schemes that fueled Enron's December 2001 crash.

An heiress to a Houston grocery and real-estate fortune, she had been an assistant treasurer at Enron but quit in 1997 to focus on motherhood. She and her husband of 20 years have two children. Most of the couple's fortune, worth an estimated $30 million, has been forfeited to the government.

In February, U.S. District Judge David Hittner denied a request from Lea Fastow's attorney that she be released from prison before her sentence ended. Hittner had imposed the maximum prison term possible and refused to accept a plea deal that would have split her time between prison and home confinement.