Teixiera sentenced to 8 months home confinement (Updated)

Update: Tony Teixeira was sentenced to eight months of home confinement and three years probation.  He must pay $98,001 in restitution.

Federal prosecutors want Democratic insider Tony Teixeira to spend twelve to eighteen months in prison for tax evasion stemming from his involvement in several political campaigns and political action committees when he is sentenced to by U.S. District Court Judge John Michael Vazquez this afternoon.

Teixeira admitted to conspiring with Sean Caddle, the political consultant involved in an unrelated murder-for-hire scheme, to pad invoices and split the proceeds.

“A meaningful term of imprisonment here will send a message to the public and other public officials that brazen acts of campaign fraud committed by high-ranking officials will not be tolerated,” U.S. Attorney Philip Sellinger said in a sentencing letter.

Sellinger said, “without an insider like Caddle, it is unlikely that Teixeira’s crimes would have been prosecuted.”

“A sentence of imprisonment in this case would send a message that even though such schemes are hard to detect, when they are unearthed, defendants who use public service to line their own pockets through fraud and deception will face serious consequences,” he said.

Teixeira has “no intention of trying to excuse or minimize his behavior,” said his attorney, John D. Lynch.  Instead, he “hopes that this Court will, after considering the other aspects and circumstances of his life and character, recognize that a term of incarceration need not be as extensive as that contemplated by the total offense level calculated by the Probation Office.

“Such a sentence is neither necessary nor appropriate,” Lynch told Vazquez.

Lynch disagreed with the U.S. Probation Department’s sentencing guidelines calculation, saying they are double-counting.

The government is also seeking $155,153 in restitution from Teixeira.

Prosecutors rejected leniency for Teixeira because he takes care of his twin six-year-old boys; his wife died suffered an aneurysm during childbirth—one of his sons is non-verbal autistic.

“While Teixeira is the custodial parent to two young children and has elderly parents, his brother is able to care for them should Teixeira be remanded for the relatively short period of prison time the government is seeking.

But Lynch believes the circumstances in this case deserve an exception.

“While every case involving the potential incarceration of a loving parent creates burdens on the family that are ultimately the responsibility of the defendant’s choices, that does not make the impact on young children, in particular, any less challenging, emotionally difficult, and tragic,” stated Lynch.  “Of course, this is even more so the case when one of the children already faces significant challenges and both children have already lost a parent whom they never got to know.”

Letters in support of Teixeira came from former Gov. James E. McGreevey, Union City Mayor/State Sen. Brian P. Stack,  New Jersey Commissioner of Labor Rob Asaro-Angelo, Assemblyman Raj Mukerji (D-Jersey City), Union County Commissioners Sergio Granados and Lourdes Leon, and several other prominent players in New Jersey politics.

Teixeira had served as chief of staff to State Sen. Raymond Lesniak (D-Elizabeth) during the period in question and is a former Elizabeth Democratic Municipal Chairman.