Tampa Tribune
TAMPA, Fla. — Former Tampa Fire Capt. Al Schaffer was a firefighter’s firefighter, his former supervisor said.
He was once firefighter of the year after running into a burning building to save a toddler when other men couldn’t get to the boy; he pulled an inebriated homeless man from underwater, saving his life.
His wife said he’s dedicated to his Christian faith and their two daughters; he volunteered untold time at the Hope Children’s Home, a charity founded by his father.
And for more than four years, Schaffer embezzled from the charity, taking, one board member said, from the mouths of abused and neglected children, contributing to a fissure that tore the home’s board of directors apart.
Schaffer was sentenced Tuesday to a year and a day in federal prison for stealing more than $187,000 from the charity when he was chief financial officer there.
Before she passed sentence, U.S. District Judge Mary Scriven struggled to understand what had happened. There were no unexpected medical bills in the family or other large debts. Why, she asked, did Schaffer do it?
“He was well employed,” the judge said. “His wife was well employed. I can’t discern a legitimate excuse for this other than he wanted some extra dough.”
Defense lawyer Anthony Arena reached for an explanation, a response to a question he said his client couldn’t answer. “It was a crime of opportunity,” Arena said. “I think it was a crime of opportunity.”
Prosecutor called Al Schaffer a Dr. Jeckyl & Mr. Hyde before judge sentenced him to 366 days. Details @ 6 pm pic.twitter.com/hRiB5F5wDh
— Adam Walser (@AdamITeam) April 5, 2016
Scriven dismissed the description by Schaffer and his supporters that he had made a mistake. “This was not a single mistake, as people are characterizing,” the judge said. “This was a four-year scheme and artifice to defraud. This is a person who got up every single morning for four years, if not longer, and decided to rob a charity organization because he could.”
As far as Schaffer’s heroics as a firefighter, Scriven said, that was his job. “I would hope a firefighter would run into a burning building and save a 2-year-old kid,” she said, “because otherwise, what are they there for?”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Palermo said it was a stark Jekyll and Hyde situation. “I don’t understand how the firefighter of the year steals from a charity started by his own father,” he said.
“Firefighter of the year 18 years ago,” Scriven interjected.
Palermo said federal investigators would not have known of the thefts if not for reporting by Mike Deeson at WTSP.
According to Schaffer’s plea agreement, he embezzled more than $187,000 between 2007 and 2011.
The home’s Executive Director Mike Higgins has said Schaffer admitted to him that he stole nearly $400,000 over 17 years. After going over the books, the home reported to the IRS that about $480,000 was missing.
Higgins, who was not at the sentencing hearing, has said the plea agreement was limited to the sum the government was easily able to prove.
After Schaffer’s theft was discovered by the home’s staff in 2011, the board of directors split into two factions, enmeshed in litigation and paralyzed, unable to act, officials say. Ultimately, a state court judge dissolved the board and appointed replacements.
Both factions of the old board and a representative of the new board were in court for Schaffer’s sentencing Tuesday, with the sides presenting different versions of what happened after the embezzlement was uncovered.
Schaffer’s backers said he wanted to use his pension to repay the home, but never did because Higgins never provided the documentation requested by Schaffer’s lawyers.
Former board member Gerald Farrington testified that after the embezzlement was discovered, Schaffer called him, expressed remorse and offered to repay what he had taken. Farrington said the charity had more than $1.6 million in liquid assets at the time, and Sciven quickly calculated that what Schaffer had taken amounted to more than 10 percent of that.
Farrington said the charity, which takes care of discarded, abused, unwanted, or orphaned children, never turned away a single child because of finances, and was even able to expand during the time of the thefts.
The charity now can house up to 80 children at a time on its northwest Tampa campus, which includes cottages where the children live with “house parents” and a Christian school that they attend.
Farrington said the disputes between board members were not because of Schaffer’s theft.
The other side said Schaffer never made any attempt to pay a penny of what he stole.
Current board member David Sommerdorf said the previous board split over its loyalties to and against Schaffer. He said Schaffer’s victims were the “thousands of children who have come through the” home over the years, including the 77 who are there now.
Schaffer, he said, has shown no remorse for his actions, which “put at risk the futures of innocent children.”
“What we hope for, as a board,” Sommerdorf added, “is remorse, repentance and restitution.”
Before he was sentenced, Schaffer gave an emotional apology, saying he was ashamed and humiliated. “I’m guilt ridden each day with the knowledge of what I did,” he said. “I’m not sure I’ll be ever free of this stain. I know I’ll face it every day of my life.”
He pledged to “dedicate the rest of my life trying to repair some of the damage I have done and trying to help others to make up for my actions ... I know my life is not done. I have family to live for.”
Schaffer’s wife, Alice, quoted Bible verses in defense of her husband, who she said has transformed himself. “This experience has brought Al to his knees, and he has been humbled,” she said. “He has begun to teach Sunday school and has made it his calling to share Jesus with those around him.”
“Though this experience has been horrific,” she said, “the change in Al has been wonderful.”
Although Scriven grilled lawyers about why Schaffer shouldn’t face a longer sentence because his crime was, in her estimation, sophisticated, the judge gave Schaffer a break. The sentence she imposed was below federal guidelines, which called for 21 to 27 months behind bars without an enhancement for a sophisticated scheme and 27 to 33 months with such a designation.
And by adding the extra day to Schaffer’s year-long sentence, Scriven made him eligible for credit for good time, which can reduce his time behind bars and would not be available without the extra day on his sentence.
Both the prosecution and the defense agreed, contrary to the judge’s opinion, that Schaffer’s crime had not been sophisticated, mainly because financial controls were virtually non-existent at the charity when Schaffer was stealing. “There were no meaningful financial controls there,” said Palermo, the federal prosecutor. “The fox was guarding the hen house.”
After he pleaded guilty, Schaffer was fired from his position at the fire department.
Arena said Schaffer has been earning about $400 or $450 a week working for a company that makes cabinets. He also receives a pension of $4,500 a month, an amount Arena said would have been much higher had Schaffer been allowed to retire in 10 years as he’d planned.
In addition to the prison sentence, Scriven ordered Schaffer to pay restitution and to serve three years probation after he is release.
The judge granted the defendant one last break. Without objection from the prosecution, Scriven said Schaffer will be permitted to turn himself in to begin serving his sentence after his 13-year-old daughter’s oral surgery on April 18. The judge said the Bureau of Prisons will give Schaffer a date to surrender between April 24 and June 6.
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