FORMER CITY DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTION OFFICIAL, ANTHONY SERRA, SENTENCED FOLLOWING HIS CONVICTION ON GRAND LARCENY AND CONFLICT OF INTEREST CHARGES

Bronx District Attorney Robert T. Johnson announced today that former New York City Department of Correction Bureau Chief Anthony Serra was sentenced to a term of one year in jail and must pay the City an additional $50,000 in restitution following his conviction on charges of grand larceny and conflict of interest. The City has already received $25,000 in restitution from Serra. The remaining $50,000 will be collected through automatic deductions from Serra’s pension benefits over the next ten years. Sentence was imposed by Acting State Supreme Court Justice Steven Barrett and is to run concurrent to Serra’s federal sentence for income tax evasion. Serra’s conviction on the federal tax evasion charge resulted in a sentence of 8 months in prison, 2 months house arrest and two years of post release supervision.

Serra pled guilty in State Supreme Court on March 8, 2005 to one count of Grand larceny in the 3rd degree, a Class D felony offense, and one count of Conflict of Interest, a Class A misdemeanor offense. The conviction was the culmination of a joint investigation by the Bronx District Attorney’s Office and the New York City Department of Investigation. Serra admitted that while serving as a high ranking Department of Correction official, he used DOC personnel assigned to Rikers Island on construction projects at his home in Mahopac, New York. Serra also admitted that he had improperly used his influence to recruit subordinates to work as “volunteers” in a poll watching operation on behalf of Governor George Pataki’s primary election campaigns.

The case was prosecuted by Senior Trial Assistant District Attorney Donald Levin, Assistant District Attorney Amir Toosi, and Department of Investigation Deputy Commissioner Daniel Brownell, who was cross designated as a Bronx Assistant District Attorney.