Retired Massachusetts State Police Trooper Paul Cesan was sentenced to one day in prison in a Boston federal court Monday, in connection with the agency’s widespread overtime abuse scandal.
Cesan, 51, of Southwick, pleaded guilty in November to a charge of embezzling from an agency receiving federal funds. On Monday he was sentenced to one day in prison, deemed already served, with one year of supervised release.
He was ordered to pay back the $29,287 for hours he did not work in 2016, according to calculations presented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Grady.
Cesan retired in March 2018 from his role with Troop E, which patrolled the Mass. Turnpike and Boston tunnels. MassLive learned Cesan earned $172,797 in 2017, including $35,271 in overtime pay. In 2016, he earned $163,533, and that included $50,866 in overtime.
“Here is a law enforcement officer who chose not to uphold the law but to break it,” Grady said. “He decided to game the system and be paid for the hours he didn’t work.”
The government requested a six month prison sentence, but Judge Douglas Woodlock accepted the sentencing recommendation by Cesan’s lawyer. Woodlock said he found it difficult to hand down the government’s recommended sentence when other implicated troopers have been given lesser sentences.
“I have to stick with that touchstone, which is to avoid disparity,” Woodlock said.
Former trooper Gary Herman was sentenced to one day in prison last week.
“There is nothing more corrosive to the justice system then disparate sentences,” Woodlock said. He added there is “nothing more corrosive to society” than law enforcement members getting a “better deal” than the average citizen.
Woodlock said if left to his own devices he would sentences Cesan to jail time. But in the need to avoid disparity, he said he could not impose a sentence on Cesan that is more severe than sentences sent down by his colleagues.
Cesan’s lawyer said sentencing the former law enforcement officer to prison time would serve no purpose. He will lose his pension, lawyer Terrence M. Dunphy said, which will serve as a “reminder every month he was…convicted of a criminal offense.”
Cesan said he wants to accept full responsibility for his actions.
“I violated my oath, let my fiancée down, let my family down and let my friends down,” Cesan said in a brief statement to the court. “I will do better and I am truly sorry for my actions.”