Former North Hempstead Democratic Chairman Gerard Terry was jailed on Tuesday after a hearing in Nassau County Court, pending sentencing for state tax fraud in June.
The decision by acting Supreme Court Justice Christopher Quinn follows a push by Stephen Scaring, Terry’s attorney, to ensure that there would be no extra jail time for his client.
Susan Deedy-Mahoney, the court clerk for Quinn, said Terry was sent to jail Tuesday and that Quinn pushed the sentencing on state tax fraud charges to June 4, a few days after a scheduled federal sentencing on May 29.
The move came after Scaring sent a letter to federal Judge Joanna Seybert asking her to consider changing the sentencing date on the federal tax fraud charges from May 29 to May 14, in hopes of preceding the previously set state court sentence of May 15.
“While the state court has committed a sentence concurrent with whatever sentence Your Honor may impose, the defendant will not receive the benefit of that commitment unless his state sentence follows the sentence that Your Honor may impose,” Scaring had written.
Prosecutors have pushed for a 54-month sentence, while Terry supporters have urged leniency given Terry’s expertise, character and health issues.
Terry, of Roslyn Heights, pleaded guilty to state and federal tax fraud charges last year.
Terry pleaded guilty in September in County Court to a count of criminal tax fraud and failing to pay $3,000 in state taxes. He had been charged with felony tax fraud for allegedly omitting income from his 2013, 2014, and 2015 state tax returns, as well as three counts of offering a false instrument.
A guilty plea to nearly $1 million in federal tax evasion, which carries with it up to five years of imprisonment, restitution to the IRS and a fine of up to $100,000, followed in October.
Prosecutors previously said Terry, an attorney, avoided paying nearly $1.4 million in income tax despite earning over $250,000 per year since 2000.
In that time he took jobs with various government entities like the Town of North Hempstead, the villages of Port Washington and Manorhaven, and other agencies in Nassau County.
