Citing concerns about his wife's health and the loss of his $127,000-per-year state pension, attorneys for Fred Rosetti, Ed.D., are arguing for a minimum sentence to be imposed today.
The retired executive director of the Northeastern Educational Intermediate Unit is scheduled to be sentenced at 9:30 a.m. in front of U.S. District Judge Robert D. Mariani at the William J. Nealon Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse.
Consequences such as a "draconian" financial loss and public shame should be enough to deter others from committing similar offenses, and not a lengthy prison sentence, the defense argues in a sentencing memorandum released Monday.
Meanwhile, in a memorandum from prosecutors, also released Monday, new details were revealed, including Dr. Rosetti ordering his assistant executive director to create false travel vouchers and threatening the loss of his job if he refused to do so.
Dr. Rosetti could receive as many as 27 to 33 months in prison and be ordered to pay restitution of up to $137,944.13. Although Judge Mariani rejected a plea agreement last month that called for a 12- to 18-month prison sentence, Dr. Rosetti chose to keep his guilty plea on theft and mail fraud charges.
The federal sentencing guideline of 27 to 33 months includes punishment for obstruction of justice. In its memorandum, the government argues there were at least several instances of such conduct.
Obstruction of justice
One such instance described by prosecutors was Dr. Rosetti asking David Reese, Ed.D., what information The Times-Tribune was looking for, as well as the information provided to the Pennsylvania Auditor General.
Dr. Reese had been the assistant executive director and was "hand selected" by Dr. Rosetti to fill the executive director position when he retired in June 2010. Dr. Reese resigned in October 2010, after the investigation by the state and The Times-Tribune began.
During Dr. Rosetti's tenure, he ordered Dr. Reese to submit false travel vouchers for him, specifying how much he wanted from the vouchers. Dr. Reese was threatened with the loss of his job "if he did not like the way the defendant was carrying out his duties."
Dr. Reese was only referred to as "person B" in court documents, but his identity is apparent based on details included in the memorandum. Efforts to reach Dr. Reese were unsuccessful Monday.
In another instance of what prosecutors call obstruction of justice, after a Times-Tribune story on the investigation, Dr. Rosetti called a regional coordinator for the Pennsylvania Initiative on Leadership to remind him of many meetings the two had in New Oxford and York. The two had never met in those locations, according to prosecutors.
Dr. Rosetti had 30 false travel vouchers claiming meetings with the regional coordinator, who is not named in court documents.
In another case, a person identified only as "person C" was hired for a newly created position in 2008. The new employee often played golf with Dr. Rosetti during work hours and never documented time off because Dr. Rosetti had asked him to play.
On one occasion, Dr. Reese approached the employee and told him to submit a false travel voucher for Dr. Rosetti. After "person C" did so, he cashed the check, put the money in a white envelope and placed it on Dr. Rosetti's desk.
At a party in 2011, after the federal grand jury investigation had started, Dr. Rosetti reminded "person C" about who asked him for the money, prosecutors say.
With the three instances, Dr. Rosetti's attorneys claim there were either no threats or cases of intimidation, or that the contact had been made before the criminal activities in question were under investigation.
Shorter sentence wanted
More than 50 community and family members, former coworkers and students have written letters to the judge on Dr. Rosetti's behalf. The letters have not been released publicly.
Dr. Rosetti's attorneys say a long prison sentence could be detrimental to his wife.
Kathleen Rosetti, who is a Type 1 diabetic, has been "increasingly unable to keep her blood sugar levels within normal limits" in the last few years. Dr. Rosetti checks his wife's blood sugar levels at midnight and 4 a.m. The defense argues that Dr. Rosetti is needed to care for his wife.
The government argues that Dr. Rosetti is not "irreplaceable as a caretaker" and states there is nothing extraordinary about his wife's condition that "warrants a departure either legally or factually."
When Dr. Rosetti entered his guilty plea in October, his pension of $10,652.51 per month was revoked by the Public School Employees' Retirement System. If the 64-year-old lives another 20 years, Dr. Rosetti will have lost about $2.5 million in pension payments. That amount is about 18 times the loss amount to the NEIU as calculated by the federal probation office, according to the defense.
His net worth has been "decimated" by the loans he had to obtain from family members to pay his legal fees, mortgage payments and other living expenses, and his Archbald home is now for sale.
The "draconian financial consequences" of Dr. Rosetti's guilty plea should "be considered as a compelling basis" for a downward variance from the sentencing guidelines, the defense argues.
Prosecutors argue the loss of income represents a "collateral form of punishment" that the court could not impose. But the loss was a consideration in the government's decision to allow the defendant to plead guilty to only two of 13 charges filed in the indictment.
Since his June release from a 12-night stay at the Lackawanna County Prison after contacting potential witnesses, Dr. Rosetti has been on home confinement, allowed outside the home only for necessary errands, medical appointments and religious services. The defense is asking for a more lenient sentence because of the restrictions that have been imposed.
There is no need to protect the public from the defendant or to deter him from committing future crimes, and the sentence also must deter the public from committing similar offenses, his attorneys state.
"But here we ask the court to consider the rather draconian consequences that he has already suffered," the defense argues. "He has suffered the shame, embarrassment and public humiliation that has flowed from the relentless news coverage of this case over a three-year time period."
Contact the writer: shofius@timesshamrock.com, @hofiushallTT on Twitter