W. Floyd Superintent Sentenced on State Charges

RIVERHEAD, N.Y. -- Former William Floyd School District business superintendent Daniel Cifonelli was sentenced Tuesday morning on state charges related to his theft of $687,000 from the district and the state teacher's retirement fund, Newsday reported.

Cifonelli, who already is serving a 2 1/2-year federal sentence for tax evasion stemming from the theft, was sentenced by Judge Michael F. Mullen in state Supreme Court in Riverhead, N.Y., to 2 to 6 years on the each of the four counts of second-degree grand larceny he had pleaded guilty to in January, 2006, and 1 to 3 years each on one count of third-degree grand larceny and four counts of money laundering.

The sentences on the state charges will run concurrently -- and also will run concurrently with the federal sentence Cifonelli began serving on Jan. 17 at the Devens Federal Medical Center in Massachusetts. Cifonelli will serve his state sentence at the federal facility, which is a prison for male offenders requiring specialized long-term medical care, the paper reported.

Addressing the court, Cifonelli's attorney, Paul Gianelli, argued for leniency, citing his client's medical problems. Gianelli said Cifonelli had suffered renal failure last summer, had been hospitalized at J.T. Mather in Port Jefferson, N.Y., and then undergone coronary care at Stony Brook University Hospital in September and October, where he underwent a second triple-bypass operation and had a defibrillator device implanted, the paper reported.

-- NYSSCPA.org News Staff

Posted on 2/6/07