The Advocate
STAMFORD, Conn. — A former Norwalk probation officer has pleaded guilty to bribe taking instead of risking a longer jail sentence if his case went to trial.
Alphah East, 38, of Hamden, accepted the plea offer Tuesday — the first day of jury selection — and faces up to two years in prison.
East’s attorney, Dan Ford, declined to comment on the case. Assistant State’s Attorney Kevin Shay suggested East may have been swayed to accept the deal to avoid the possibility of facing a much longer sentence if he lost at trial. A public employee convicted of bribe receiving faces up to 10 years in jail.
“We feel that things for Mr. East are going in an appropriate direction,” Shay said.
“We were ready to go to trail and had a couple of jurors and he decided to plead guilty.”
When East returns to court, Judge Richard Comerford will sentence him to five years in jail, with at least three years suspended followed by three years of probation. Ford will have a chance argue for a lesser sentence.
If East, who has been living quietly since 2010 with no offenses on his criminal record, violates his probation by getting arrested after his release from jail, he could be made to serve all or part of his suspended sentence.
East’s arrest and plea agreement marked his precipitous. East was a promising Judicial Branch employee working through rapid promotions and making about $70,000 per year before his arrest.
East was arrested in early 2010 after the Westport father of one of his clients told his attorney, Mickey Sherman, that he was worried he was being shaken down for money.
Sherman called the most powerful prosecutor in Connecticut, Chief State’s Attorney Kevin Kane, to register a complaint. Soon after that call, a sting was set up at the Westport Avenue Starbucks in Norwalk where East met with Joe Laurita, a clothing apparel magnate and father to the woman on probation being supervised by East.
During the meeting, which was witnessed by investigators with the state Division of Criminal Justice, East told Laurita he could terminate his daughter’s three-year probation sentence for $5,000.
But by the time of the Norwalk meeting in January 2010, Laurita, who is now CEO of the Jimmy Buffett’s signature clothing brand, Margaritaville Apparel Group, had made seven “loans” to East totaling $13,000, according to an arrest affidavit.
East was stopped in the coffee shop’s parking lot and found in possession of a $5,000 check signed by Laurita.
East told investigators he owed $50,000 in credit card bills and became addicted to OxyContin, after the medication was prescribed for a back problem and a deteriorating bone in his foot. East said he was spending $200 a day for painkillers, according to the arrest affidavit.
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