by Thomas Breen | Oct 4, 2019 3:42 pm

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Posted to: City Hall, Legal Writes

An ex-city worker was sentenced Friday to nine months in federal prison after pleading guilty to 16 years and $102,000-plus worth of on-the-job theft.

The sentencing judge cited “general deterrence” — the use incarceration time to discourage prospective future criminals from committing similar offenses.

U.S. District Court Judge Janet C. Hall handed down that sentence inside the Church Street federal court house Friday midday at the end of an hour-and-a-half sentencing hearing for Daniel Lion.

Hall gave Lion a nine-month prison sentence followed by three years of probation and 300 hours of community service. She also ordered him to pay the city a full restitution for the amount he stole, and to pay the court a $7,500 fine.

Lion, a 65-year-old Hamden resident and former payroll staffer who worked in New Haven city government for 42 years, pleaded guilty in May to stealing $102,947.44 through a convoluted embezzlement scheme. He would pay himself for extra vacation time with print checks and then would delete entries of those payments from the city’s computer records. Some of those fraudulent payments were made in as low as $2,000 increments.

The Harp administration discovered Lion’s theft, which dated back to 2002 and lasted through June 2018, in March during an audit of city spending. Lion subsequently retired with a $59,360.70 annual pension.

In a first-floor courtroom at the federal courthouse at 141 Church St. Friday, Hall handed down her sentence after a nearly 20-minute speech going back and forth, back and forth on the various personal, social, and legal criteria she had to consider when determining the most effective punishment for Lion’s actions.

Assistant United States Attorney Ray Miller recommended a sentence of between 15 and 21 months, based on the findings of the government’s pre-sentencing report, the longevity of his crime, and his breach of public trust. Defense attorney John Donovan asked the judge for a lesser sentence, considering Lion’s admission of guilt and willingness to pay full restitution. Click here and here to read the plaintiff’s and the defense’s respective sentencing memorandums.

No “Concrete Reason”

On the one hand, Hall acknowledged, all four character witnesses who testified in court on behalf of Lion and everything she had learned about him over the course of the case had convinced her that he is a “good man,” a dedicated friend, a devoted stepfather and husband who has been “generous, kind, and thoughtful” throughout his life.

One lifelong friend described Lion as like a second father to his young kids and like a second son to his elderly parents. “I consider myself lucky to have Danny as a friend,” he said. “This is certainly not the Danny that I know.”

Another friend said he had worked with Lion at City Hall for 39 years, and had always known him to be “a dedicated, hard-working, and extremely well-liked employee” who frequently went “above and beyond the call of duty” in answering work questions while on vacation or sick.

“Danny Lion has been my best friend for over 50 years,” said a fourth friend. “I trust him like the brother I never had.” He said he is confident that Lion has “learned a life lesson from his crime.”

Lion, dressed in a gray suit and black wingtip shoes, with a bushy gray mustache and a matching tuft of gray hair atop his head, sat calmly throughout the hearing as over a dozen friends and family members quietly stifled sobs in the audience section behind him. He chewed gum throughout, closing his eyes, occasionally putting his right forefinger to his chin to strike a contemplative pose, as his friends lauded his character.

In his own address before Hall, Lion offered little explanation for why he had stolen so much money over such a long period of time. He didn’t have any drug or gambling problems, he said. And he grew up in and thrived in a largely loving and supportive family environment.

“I do not have a concrete reason,” he said. The only two he could think of were “stupidity” and “household expenses.”

His defense attorney offered that the theft gave Lion a “psychological boost” because of a deeply ingrained lack of self-confidence that came with socializing with people who made more money than he did.

Lion promised the judge that this theft represented “my first and last transgression.” He said he accepted full responsibility for his crime: “I am not proud of what I have done.”

“Serve To Deter Someone Else”

As important as personal history and characteristics are for her sentencing considerations, Hall said, the establishment that Lion is a “good man” is not the only factor she must consider.

She must also consider the seriousness of his crime and an incarceration sentence’s capacity for both individual and general deterrence.

Hall said she was not worried about the individual component of the matter. Sentences can be used to discourage individuals from committing the same crime upon release, she said, by instilling in them a sense that the risk of more time served is simply not worth whatever perceived short-term benefits might come from committing a crime again.

She said she was, however, convinced that Lion’s sentence could serve a socially utilitarian role as a general deterrent: a message to potential future white-collar fraudsters looking to Lion’s case for what they risk by potentially engaging in similar behavior.

“It hasn’t worked very well in the War on Drugs,” Hall said, noting that decades of steep penalties for relatively low-level drug-related crimes have not been successful at curbing recidivism, and have only inflated the country’s prison population to world-historical levels.

But there is some evidence, she said, that general deterrence works for white-collar crimes, usually committed by “better educated” individuals who have given “more thought” to their crimes before committing them.

Through any publicity this case might receive, she said, her sentence “might serve to deter someone else from committing the same crime.”

And so, at around 12:30, she handed down Lion’s sentence: nine months incarceration, with a likely designation of the federal Fort Devens prison in Massachusetts; a full restitution to the city of $102,947.44, along with a $7,500 fine; and three years of probation, along with 300 hours of community service.

She agreed to Lion’s attorney’s request that the ex-city worker voluntarily surrender himself to federal custody in 60 days, on Dec. 4. She advised Lion not to be wracked by shame and guilt for the rest of his life after serving his sentence. One he completes his sentence, she said, then this chapter of his life should be over.

“You did it,” she said. “It’s done. And you’ve paid for it.”

Rose: “Doesn’t Sit Well With Me”

While Hall did order Lion to pay full restitution to the city for the money he stole, Corporation Counsel John Rose revealed during the sentencing hearing that a significant chunk of that money, $27,956.54 to be exact will likely be paid by the city back to itself.

That’s because Lion, having worked for the city for over four decades and having retired before he could be fired, had wracked up a significant amount of unpaid vacation, sick, and longevity pay.

Rose said that he and Lion’s attorney had spoken about the restitution, and the defense attorney had informed him that Lion plans to use that owed backpay to the city as part of his restitution.

Lion had worked for and earned that money, Rose said. And, according to every law he looked at, Lion was entitled to it.

“That doesn’t sit well with me,” he said. “It just doesn’t.”

Ultimately, Hall ordered Lion to pay back the full amount stolen to the city. She left it to the city’s and Lion’s attorney’s discretion to figure out how exactly that money would be paid, whether through credit for unpaid vacation and sick and longevity or through a full payment following the city’s disbursement of owed pay to Lion.

Donovan, Lion’s attorney, said that the state attorney general has filed an action to revoke or reduce Lion’s pension because of the latter’s breach of public trust while on the job. That separate case, however, had been temporarily put on hold as the attorney general’s office waited for the outcome of Friday’s sentencing hearing.