The chief decide of the federal courtroom in Boston dressed down a former Massachusetts state senator and his legal professional when the defendant as soon as once more made a transfer that delayed his sentencing on fraud costs.
“I’m sad,” U.S. District Court docket Chief Choose F. Dennis Saylor IV stated at what ought to have been ex-State Sen. Dean Tran’s sentencing Friday morning. “I am unhappy that Mr. Walsh is late. I am unhappy that Mr. Tran was in the hallway.”
Tran, 48, of Fitchburg, was convicted on Sept. 11 following a six-day trial on 20 counts of wire fraud and three counts of submitting false tax returns. He was indicted on November 2023. The Republican represented Worcester and Middlesex Counties from 2017 to January 2021.
Saylor had first set sentencing for Dec. 4, 2024. Protection legal professional Michael Walsh then filed a slew of motions for acquittal, altering the judgment, a brand new trial, and appealed earlier than Saylor set a brand new sentencing date for Friday morning.
The sentencing listening to scheduled for 10 a.m. began a bit late because the courtroom waited for Walsh. When Walsh arrived on the protection group desk, Tran was not with him — however Walsh assured Saylor that Tran was simply within the hallway.
Saylor was additional “unhappy” that when he began his day, he noticed a protection sentencing memo that was filed in a single day and that features supplies that each prosecutors and probation must reply to, thus additional delaying the sentencing. Saylor scheduled a brand new sentencing date of Feb. 7.
“It’s unfair to me. It’s unfair to the government. It’s unfair to the people who have made time to be here,” Saylor stated, with a sigh. “It’s unfair, it’s inappropriate and I feel like I have no choice but to continue this hearing … Because of counsel’s failure to adhere to a basic set of deadlines.”
Walsh stated that he was “working as diligently as possible” and filed the memo at 3:30 that morning. Saylor stated that he and possibly everybody else was “asleep in bed” at the moment and that he “certainly wasn’t waiting for it.”
Prosecutors are asking that Tran spend two years in jail — in addition to a $75,000 positive, restitution and financial forfeiture — as he’s “deserving” of such a sentence to “hold him responsible and punish him for his fraud, deceit and lies,” in accordance with their very own sentencing memo.
Tran utilized for and acquired COVID-19 unemployment help whereas he was employed as a guide for an automotive components firm at $90 an hour — which is fraud. He additionally, prosecutors wrote, “willfully and repeatedly cheated on his 2020, 2021 and 2022 taxes.”
“TRAN has shown no remorse for his crimes or accepted responsibility for his actions. Instead, he has attempted to obstruct justice, cast blame elsewhere and made baseless accusations that have absolutely no support in law or fact,” federal prosecutors John Mulcahy and Dustin Chao wrote of their sentencing memo filed on Monday.
They additional wrote that Tran has exhibited “utter disrespect for the law and the legal process.”
“His misguided and empty claims of selective prosecution show that he is not above committing fraud again to serve his own interests,” Mulcahy and Chao wrote. “His refusal to accept responsibility and claims that he did nothing wrong suggest that he would reoffend again and make it especially important that his sentence reflect the importance of deterrence.”
Tran has requested President-elect Trump to pardon him, has stated he made unhealthy decisions as a result of he’s affected by PTSD after witnessing a capturing, has requested for “post-trial contact with jurors” as a result of he feels he was improperly convicted, and has coated his personal trial on social media wherein prosecutors complained to Saylor that he was disparaging them.
“To point out respect for the decide, I’ll tone down my language as a lot as I can with civility and professionalism, contemplating these folks have destroyed my life,” Tran wrote at one level throughout his trial.
It is a growing story.
Former Massachusetts state Sen. Dean Tran, proper, walks together with his spouse and his lawyer, Michael Walsh, after pleading not responsible to 6 felony state costs at Worcester Superior Court docket in July 2022. (Picture by Flint McColgan for the Boston Herald)
