By Dan Murphy
Last week we reported on a Bedford Town Justice who was arrested and “Tazed” for driving under the influence. This week, another sad story from a well-known family name in the Town of Harrison, as former Police Chief Anthony Marraccini was sentenced by Federal Judge Kenneth Karas to 18 months in prison for tax evasion.
In order to defraud, or evade, the federal government of $900,000 over six years, that individual must have earned more than $5 million during that time, an usually high amount for a local public servant and police officer.
If you combine the millions earned by Marraccini with his generous salary as police chief in Harrison of $185,000, there appears to be more than enough money for him to pay his taxes.
Marraccini, whose brother Phil served as Harrison supervisor in the 1990s and who ran again against current Harrison Supervisor Ron Belmont just two years ago, asked the court for mercy and no jail during his sentencing in federal court in White Plains last week.
Marraccini made two arguments, which journalist Phil Reisman called “ridiculous” and “nonsense” on a recent chat with WVOX 1460 AM morning show host Bob Marrone. First, Marraccini asked for leniency based on the fact that he was a former police chief and a public servant of the people.
We refer our readers back to a letter from one of our readers that we printed in our May 10 issue. “Elected officials and celebrities should be held to a higher standard of conduct and justice. Our society needs to be made sure that just because you have a title, or won elected office, or are rich or famous, you should still have to face the price of justice if you do wrong or harm to others. This includes police officers and elected officials caught stealing or committing crimes. They should be charged with the maximum penalty,” wrote Beatrice Simpson from Peekskill.
We completely agreed with Ms. Simpson two weeks ago and we agree with her now. Marraccini plead for leniency, but we believe he should be held to a higher standard, and it appears Judge Karas concurred, saying: “The police chief is the one person in town who should not be spending six years evading taxes. The law enforcement community is damaged by this kind of conduct.”
Another argument proposed to the judge by Marraccini and his attorney, noted criminal defense attorney Andrew Quinn, was that Marraccini had too much responsibility both as police chief and in his role in the company Coastal Construction Associates.
Marraccini joined the Harrison Police Department in 1984, and rose through the ranks to police chief, which he served from 2010 to 2016. He was suspended in 2016 after being accused of filling out time sheets for hours he did not work. The accusations, made by the Journal News, were never denied by Marraccini, nor anyone. A strange contractual arrangement gave Marraccini overtime payments in lieu of the Town-Village of Harrison hiring another police captain. He resigned after the Journal News exposed a federal probe into Coastal Construction Associates.
Assistant U.S. Attorney James McMahon said Marraccini’s actions were “the height of arrogance,” when, even after he was interviewed by the IRS in 2016, he continued to underreport his income from Coastal Construction Associates.
The other thought all of us complain about when it comes to anyone accused or found guilty of not paying taxes, whether it be Al Pirro or President Donald Trump, is: Why should I pay my fair share of taxes is they aren’t? The answer to that riddle is: If you don’t pay your taxes, you may end up going to jail, like Al Pirro and now Anthony Marraccini.
The other reason we highlight these stories from Bedford and Harrison is to show our readers across the county that wrongdoing happens everywhere, not just in the big Westchester cities.
