Prosecutor: Make an example of the Skeloses

In court papers filed on Monday, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara beseeched U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood to hand down heavy sentences to Dean and Adam Skelos, asking her to commit the pair to more than a decade in prison, and to add steep fines as well for the senior Skelos.

In a sentencing memorandum filed on Monday, in response to documents the Skeloses filed last week asking for nothing more than community service, Bharara said that such a light sentence would be a slap in the face to New Yorkers. Instead, he asked Wood to sentence Dean Skelos to 12 1/2 to 15 2/3 years plus a fine, and Adam Skelos to 10 to 12 1/2 years.

“It must be a sentence that not only punishes Dean and Adam Skelos for the insidious harm they have caused, but one that also deters other elected officials and promotes respect for the rule of law, consistent with the principles applied by virtually every federal judge imposing a sentence for public corruption crimes of this nature, magnitude, and length,” Bharara wrote. “In addition, justice further requires that Dean Skelos’s sentence include a stiff and substantial fine, well above the Guidelines, to reflect both the seriousness of his crimes and also his ability to pay, given the lifelong taxpayer-funded state pension of more than $95,000 per year that he is scheduled to receive, despite his conviction for criminally abusing his public position.”

In papers filed last week, attorneys for the Skeloses asked for leniency in the sentencing, with no jail time, citing Dean’s years of public service and Adam’s troubled past, and claiming that any crimes they committed were the result of a father’s love for his son.

Bharara tore through the Skeloses’ request, saying that this was not a one-time event, as Dean’s lawyer characterized it, but a systematic corruption scheme carried out over several years. He painted Dean not as a compassionate father and civic-minded man, but as a criminal looking to line the pockets of his son, who was already well off. According to the documents, Adam’s annual salary was already $200,000 when the two attempted to monetize Dean’s office.