Steven Crea Gets Life and a 'Symbolic' Gift During Sentencing for the Murder of Michael Meldish

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There are a lot of documents with this one --- I'll post them after

Steven Crea Gets Life and a 'Symbolic' Gift During Sentencing for the Murder of Michael Meldish

Yesterday was Steven Crea’s lucky day.

Not only did Crea receive a mandatory life sentence for his November 2019 conviction for the murder of Michael Meldish, but he also received a “symbolic” life sentence for a charge that only legally required a maximum of five years – courtesy of U.S. District Court Judge Cathy Seibel.

Yesterday’s sentencing was a continuation of his original Aug. 6 sentencing where Seibel ruled on objections by the defense regarding various issues with Crea’s presentencing report (PSR) and imposed a $1.34 million forfeiture.

The government was originally seeking $1.3 million on principal for a legal loan given to Randy Silverstein of Sparrow Construction through an investment firm Crea was involved with, $1.1 million in interest on that legal loan, and $188,000 the government claimed Crea received in payments from a loan given to co-defendant Joseph Datello back in 1999.

At that hearing, however, Seibel ruled there wasn’t sufficient evidence regarding the $1.1 million in interest, dismissing that amount and reducing the Datello loan down to $40,000 after the government couldn’t explain how they came to the $188,000 figure. In previous court documents, they stated the money received by Crea was only $88,000.

But when an argument arose as to whether or not the defense was entitled to an appeal hearing on the $1.3 million (Seibel was going to allow the prosecution to appeal the interest amount but was less willing to allow the defense to appeal the principal amount, stating she wasn’t “sure what the point” would be if they appealed,) Seibel ordered the two parties to see if they could come to a resolution.

They eventually did and agreed to a $1 million dollar forfeiture.

That amount seems like it should have been a hefty enough financial punishment for Crea, especially considering none of his 17 other co-defendants were subjected to forfeiture – even those whom the government claimed were in “high ranking” positions where they reportedly “made millions” through racketeering activities.

But during yesterday’s sentencing, Seibel didn’t see it that way.

Despite both probation and the government suggesting fines within the recommended guidelines of $50,000 and $250,000, Seibel ordered Crea to pay an additional $400,000 – a fine that wasn’t even required considering the sizeable forfeiture he had already agreed to pay.

“I recognize that’s above what the guidelines call for,” she said. “But this defendant’s offense level is above what the guidelines recognize, and this defendant has spent a lifetime getting rich off organized criminal activity.”

It was a strange statement to make considering she had noted earlier that she didn’t “really know very much about (Crea’s) finances” only using his tax documents as a guide because she didn’t have any of his other financial statements available to make a more educated assessment.

But Seibel wasn’t about to follow the guidelines with anything else either.

And considering Crea’s highly questionable conviction for the 2013 MichzelMeldish murder, and one which the government threw into the spotlight during Crea’s November trial, neither the government nor the judge touched on it much when it came down to the actual sentencing.

Instead, they focused on people and events that had no relevance to the charges at hand.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Hagan Scotten started it off by telling Seibel, “The Court heard evidence of (Crea) threatening to take the life of at least three people because they displeased him. The people I’m thinking of are Carl Ulzheimer, Joseph Datello, and Sean Richard…”

For those not familiar with the case, Crea was charged with the attempted assault and murder of Ulzheimer after an alleged incident at a social club in the Bronx. But after the jury heard conflicting testimony from unreliable government cooperating witnesses, the jury acquitted Crea of the charge.

(DOC - Crea’s acquittal of the Ulzheimer attempted assault charge.)

Joseph Datello was a co-defendant of Crea’s who took a plea bargain and is currently serving time for a variety of other racketeering charges.

Crea wasn’t charged with any offense in relation to Datello. The only significance of Datello even being mentioned was that an undercover FBI agent and a paid informant by the name of Robert Spinelli were using borderline illegal tactics to set up Datello in order to get close to Crea, which leads us to Sean Richard.

Datello and Richard were business partners in a construction firm way back in the 1990s. In 1999, their firm was having some financial difficulties and Crea gave Datello, a lifelong friend, a $200,000 loan to help their business out.

In 2000, both Datello and Richard were indicted on racketeering charges. Datello took a plea bargain and served three years. Richard, on the other hand, became an informant and went into the witness protection program leaving Datello with the responsibility of paying back the loan.

Now, the government claims that Crea “threatened” Datello in regards to paying back the loan, but after 20 years, Datello is still alive and well. And apparently, according to the government, the loan still hasn’t been paid back in full.

Also, as Crea’s attorney Robert Franklin said at the Aug. 6 hearing, “If Mr. Crea is really extorting money from Joe Datello, then he’s the worst collection guy in history. It’s been 20 years and he still hasn’t been paid.”

In the original 2017 indictment, Crea and Datello were charged with attempted assault and murder of Sean Richard. It was Count Six in the indictment.

(DOC - Original 2017 Indictment - “New Trial Indictment” 2019)

However, by the time the trial came around, this charge against Crea was dropped? Why?

Because the government had a hard time telling the truth.

Throughout the entire pre-trial proceedings, the government had claimed they possessed consensual recordings proving Datello and Crea had conspired to kill Richard, but time and again, their “proof” never transpired.

In fact, it got so bad that Crea’s attorneys filed a motion requesting Seibel review the Grand Jury minutes because there had been so many misrepresentations made by the government regarding the “evidence” they claimed they possessed, it seemed likely that the entire indictment was based on falsehoods and that the Grand Jury had been misled.

(DOC - Crea’s 2018 Omnibus Motion Regarding Richard – Part 1 Crea’s 2018 Omnibus Motion Regarding Richard – Part 2- Crea’s 2018 Omnibus Motion Regarding Richard – Part 3)

However, Seibel declined to look at the Grand Jury minutes. Instead, she advised the government to review its evidence and “re-indict,” otherwise she’d be forced to really delve into what was going on.

It was a cop-out on her part and another opportunity for the government to rewrite their already suspect case against Crea.

So, in July 2019 – four months before the start of the trial – the government submitted a “new trial indictment” – only this time it didn’t include the attempted assault and murder of Sean Richard.

(DOC-Judge Seibel’s “New Trial Indictment” Order – Part 1 - Judge Seibel’s “New Trial Indictment” Order – Part 2 - Judge Seibel’s “New Trial Indictment” Order – Part 3)

So, why was Scotten speaking about three individuals that had no relevance to the sentencing? Your guess is as good as ours, but he wasn’t quite finished.

After his “brief” review of Ulzheimer, Datello, and Richard, he moved on to “some lesser events” that had even less to do with Crea’s sentencing than the three previously mentioned.

“…One that stands out,” Scotten told the Court, “was having people try to put his former son-in-law in the hospital for a fairly trivial debt for somebody especially of Crea’s wealth.”

The “former son-in-law” Scotten was speaking of was Edward Davidson, who had been married to Crea’s daughter. However, after the “trivial” matter of Davidson stealing $40,000 from a special education school where he worked, the couple divorced.

What Scotten failed to mention was that not only wasn’t Crea charged with assaulting Davidson but that Davidson testified he didn’t believe Crea had anything to do with the aforementioned assault.

(DOC - Davidson Testimony – Cross Examination by Crea Attorney Robert Franklin)

In addition, the couple had divorced in 2015 and this assault happened in 2016- nearly a year after the fact. Plus, it was such a minor assault, Davidson didn’t even report it to the police and his injuries were so minor, he didn’t even bother going to the hospital.

And let’s not forget the fact that Crea lent the money to Davidson so he wouldn’t face jail time for stealing from his job, and the money lent was settled in the divorce proceedings.

But you can read about it for yourself. We’ve included both Scotten’s direct examination and Franklin’s cross for your perusal.


(DOC - Davidson Testimony – Scotten Direct – Part 1 - Davidson Testimony – Scotten Direct – Part 2 - Davidson Testimony – Franklin Cross – Part 1 -
Davidson Testimony – Franklin Cross – Part 2 - Davidson Testimony – Franklin Cross – Part 3)

Scotten did finally get around to Michael Meldish, telling the Court that “…(Crea) was willing to take the life of somebody who hadn’t really offended him personally just because that’s sort of how the organization works..” in order to clarify the government’s unsurprising position that a life sentence was “entirely justified.”

Franklin was limited in his comments only telling the Court he disagreed with “just about everything Mr. Scotten has said” and that the Court was fully aware of their stance and that there was “no reason to state our position further in this matter.”

Crea himself had nothing to add, telling the Court “No, Your Honor” when asked if he wanted to make a statement.

Seibel, however, had lots to say. But like Scotten, she was ill-informed.

While she stated that “…this case shows that the mafia still controls labor unions and still greatly inflates the cost of building. In this case, it was a hospital that was corrupted,” she failed to add into the record that Crea was not involved in any corruption regarding Bronx Lebanon Hospital.

Perhaps, she meant to say Randy Silverstein.

Crea made a legal loan to Silverstein and Sparrow Construction after Silverstein couldn’t get the financing he needed for to secure a project offerd to him by Bronx Lebanon. It was done through an investment firm called Jambert Holdings where Crea was one of three partners who ended up investing in the loan

In addition, the loan was verified as legal by the government’s own FBI forensic expert and one for which Crea paid taxes on as required by law.

Silverstein was charged with change order fraud in the same 2017 indictment as Crea but turned government witness after learning he was going to face 60 years in prison. Crea was not charged in the scheme.

And at trial, Silverstein testified that Crea was not involved in the scheme or even involved in the Bronx Lebanon Hospital project at all other than providing the loan and referring contractors when requested by Silverstein.

(DOC - Silverstein Testimony – Robert Franklin Cross-Examination)

But those were irrelevant issues because Seibel had better things in store for Crea.

After sentencing him to mandatory life for Meldish’s murder and 10 years for conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering, she was free from the grouping of those first three counts.

She explained that while she had no “discretion” to go below life for the murder count, she did have that discretion on the other counts.

“Whether I should do so depends,” she said, on legal factors and nature of offenses.

But she was just pulling everyone’s leg because when it came to the final count of “use of a firearm resulting in death,” she decided to make a “symbolic statement.”

Instead of the maximum five years recommended for that offense, she handed down a sentence of life.

“I recognize that the guidelines call for five years consecutive,” she said. “But this doesn’t sit right with me that using a firearm to commit murder only results in five years.”

Crea wasn’t even the alleged triggerman in the Meldish shooting, but it didn’t matter.

“It is a symbolic sentence,” she said. One that she believed was “merited.”

“It’s only a symbolic statement,” she said, “but it just seems to me that a cold-blooded mob-related hit is a particularly heinous form of firearm use.”

Seibel also gave Crea 8 years of supervised release with “special conditions” – a higher amount than any of Crea’s other co-defendants received.

“I suppose it’s conceivable there will be a change in the law or that the conviction on one or more counts may be vacated,” but she was “obligated” to do so even though Crea was sentenced to life, she said.

“Again, this is likely academic,” she said shortly thereafter, “but there you have it.”

And there you have it. Just another day in a fair and impartial courtroom.

Crea is expected to file an an appeal.

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Some additional documents for all of you to show you the actual court order as to Crea's sentencing compared to the manipulative language used in the government's press release which was picked up verbatim by several news outlets.