WEST HAVEN, Conn. — Former West Haven State Rep. Michael DiMassa was sentenced to 27 months in prison after he pled guilty to misusing city COVID-19 funds.
He must self-surrender by July 31 to a federal prison "close to him", once officials select the facility. The sentence will be followed up by five years of supervised release. DiMassa will also have to pay $40,000 a year to the city of West Haven, toward a total restitution of $865,844.45.
"I would like, obviously, my courtroom statements to stand for themselves," DiMassa said outside the court following his sentencing. "But I felt it was only right to apologize – you know – on camera, to the residents, to the constituents [...] they deserve that. They deserve my apology. The State of Connecticut deserves my apology. My former coworkers and colleagues deserve that apology. I didn't want it to just be in written form in court records, I want them to hear it from me."
DiMassa, also a West Haven city employee at the time, eventually pleaded guilty in November 2022 to stealing more than $1 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds meant for the city. He used a good chunk of the money to fuel his gambling addiction.
“Mr. DiMassa suffered from a debilitating gambling addiction at the time of the offense,” his lawyer, John Gulash, wrote in a court filing, “and his essentially unfettered access to a deep pool of federal funds and total lack of impulse control facilitated his precipitous downward spiral.”
The lawyer compared DiMassa to Howard Ratner, the gambler played by Adam Sandler in the movie “Uncut Gems." He said he bet on things as frivolous as how long the national anthem would take to perform at the Super Bowl, or what color Gatorade would be poured on the winning coach.
He did much of his gambling and betting at the Mohegan Sun casino in eastern Connecticut.
DiMassa resigned from the Legislature and the city of West Haven after his arrest in 2021.
He has cited several reasons for leniency, including his lack of any previous criminal record, his testicular cancer, and being able to care for his children.
During a victim impact statement, West Haven Mayor Nancy Rossi said the "city was moving in a positive direction," as the city had a $5 million surplus in 2021. After the arrests, the city's bond rating increased and its reputation was hit with a negative impact on a national level, according to the mayor.
“The impact will be felt for a generation,” Rossi said.
At the time of the thefts, which began in mid-2020, DiMassa was both a state representative and an aide to the West Haven City Council with the authority to approve reimbursements for coronavirus-related expenses. He pleaded guilty in November to three counts of wire fraud conspiracy, admitting that he and others billed West Haven for legal, lobbying, and consulting services that were never provided.
DiMassa and a business partner, John Bernardo, also a former West Haven city employee, stole nearly $637,000, prosecutors said.
Bernardo pleaded guilty to wire fraud and was sentenced to 13 months in prison in March.
In a second scheme, DiMassa and another business owner, John Trasacco, conspired to submit fraudulent invoices from Trasacco’s companies to the city, netting nearly $432,000 in COVID-19 aid, with nearly all of it going to Trasacco. Trasacco was sentenced to eight years in prison in March after a jury convicted him of fraud.
The final conspiracy involved DiMassa and his wife, Lauren DiMassa, and the theft of nearly $148,000, authorities said. The couple submitted phony requests for payments by the city related to a youth violence prevention program. The stolen funds were not federal coronavirus aid.
Lauren DiMassa, who is pregnant with the couple's second child, pleaded guilty last year and was sentenced in March to six months in prison.
Jennifer Glatz is a digital content producer at FOX61 News. She can be reached at jglatz@fox61.com.
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