By John Nickerson
The Advocate
STAMFORD, Conn. — Alphah East was once a rising star in Stamford-Norwalk Judicial District.
A talented basketball player with good looks and an affable demeanor, East quickly worked his way up to probation officer in Norwalk making more than $70,000 per year after serving as a judicial marshal and bail commissioner.
“’Till then, he had the world on a string,” East’s attorney, Dan Ford, said Tuesday before his client was sentenced at the Stamford courthouse to 18 months in jail for taking bribes.
Ford said pain medication prescribed to East in 2008 for a back injury turned his client’s life upside down. He said East became a drug addict and after his arrest he was fired from his job, divorced by his new wife and spent more than six months on the street without a home.
East’s life began to fall apart in early 2010 after the Westport father of one of his clients told his attorney, Mickey Sherman, East was shaking him down for money. A sting was set up at the Westport Avenue Starbucks in Norwalk, where East met with Joe Laurita, a clothing apparel magnate and father of the woman on probation under East’s supervision.
During the meeting that was taped by investigators, Laurita gave East a $5,000 check. Laurita had already made seven “loans” to East totaling $13,500. East promised the additional money would get his daughter’s probation terminated with the help of an attorney and friendly judge.
This past March, a little more than six years after his arrest, East pleaded guilty to bribe taking. In exchange for the plea, he was to be sentenced up to two years in jail, and Ford would be given a chance to argue for less.
At Tuesday’s sentencing, Assistant State’s Attorney Kevin Shay, who prosecuted the case, said he believed the two-year sentence was appropriate.
“What really sets this defendant apart from other defendants, was his position of trust,” Shay said.
Shay also argued that working as a probation officer East was more familiar than the average person about the help available to addicts and should have done something to straighten his life out.
“When the trust is broken by a public official, that trust has to be repaired in some way. ... The faith in our system is what makes it work,” Shay said, adding that people working for the public must face severe penalties to keep others honest.
East said he understood he broke his oath as a public servant.
“I was in the depths of addiction,” he said. “I have lived with this every day. I’ve relived this every day since the day I was arrested. I am extremely sorry.”
Judge Richard Comerford said in today’s society there doesn’t seem to be any concern for personal responsibility. Too many people want to make excuses for their shortcomings by blaming outside influences, he said.
“What about the obligation to act as a good human being, to advance the public good?” he asked. “Nobody wants to talk about that obligation in our society today.”
Comerford said one year in jail, which Ford advocated, was not enough.
East was sentenced to five years in jail, three and a half years of which were suspended. At the end of his prison term, East will also spend three years on probation.
Copyright 2016 The Advocate