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Overcast Fagen gets jail time
Former councilman sentenced to 30 days following fraud conviction
Former City Councilman Michael Fagen was sentenced to 30 days in jail and five years’ probation on Wednesday, and was ordered to pay back more than $15,000 in unemployment benefits that prosecutors say he fraudulently collected while he sat on the council.
The sentencing, by Nassau County Court Judge Meryl Berkowitz, came four months after Fagen, 56, was found guilty of 18 counts of first-degree offering a false instrument for filing and one count of petit larceny. The jury was unable to reach verdicts on the top charge, one count of third-degree grand larceny and 20 additional counts of offering a false instrument for filing.
Fagen was indicted in February 2012, and Wednesday’s sentencing brought an end to more than a year of legal proceedings. He maintained his innocence throughout, but was forced to step down from the council following his felony conviction.
“I’m certainly disappointed,” Fagen’s attorney, Marc Gann, said of the sentence. “I understand the judge’s position, but I think that in this circumstance, the message that needed to be sent was sent by virtue of [Fagen’s] conviction, the publicity surrounding it and the devastation it’s had on his life, and will have in the future. I didn’t think jail was necessary, but I understand the judge’s viewpoint that it was.”
Prosecutors said that they were hoping for a six-month prison sentence for Fagen, in addition to probation and his paying a total of $15,783 in restitution.
According to prosecutors, Fagen failed to report his yearly income of $19,828 as a city official on unemployment claims, and received $405 per week in unemployment benefits after he took office. Between Jan. 1 and Sept. 19, 2010, they argued, he collected benefits he was not eligible for, and knowingly defrauded the State Labor Department on 38 occasions.
Prosecutors also said that Fagen failed to disclose to the Labor Department his work as a consultant for a hotel membership benefits company, Willow Advisors, and continued to receive undeserved unemployment benefits.
