Sasha Masri, the former Village of Saddle Rock trustee candidate convicted last month of attempted assault during an October dispute with Mayor Dan Levy, was sentenced to a year of probation Wednesday.
The judgment fell between what was requested by prosecutors – a sentence of 10 days incarceration plus probation – and the defense, who asked for a conditional discharge.
Masri, who was found not guilty of four more serious charges including felony assault but was convicted on a lesser count added late in trial proceedings, said after the hearing that the sentence was “unfair, unjust and not appropriate for a conviction of a lesser charge.”
During the trial, prosecutors accused Masri of causing deep lacerations to Levy’s head and fractures to Levy’s shoulder during the pair’s physical confrontation following an Oct. 3 Village of Saddle Rock board meeting, and Masri’s defense presented allegations of financial misconduct by Levy and the village board.
“For a person who uncovered fraud within the Village of Saddle Rock, I should be praised rather than punished,” Masri said, while urging the county District Attorney’s office to fully investigate the village board and suggesting that authorities disband the board.
Levy was not present at the sentencing and has repeatedly declined to comment on the allegations regarding the village’s finances. Elizabeth Kase, an attorney who represented Levy during the trial, issued a statement in June criticizing Masri’s allegations.
“Any distraction from Sasha Masri’s acts of violence add insult to Mayor Levy’s serious injuries,” Kase wrote.
Masri is also subject to a $500 fine and court surcharges. Nassau County Judge Philip Grella also extended an order prohibiting Masri from harassing Levy, rejecting requests from the prosecution to strengthen the order and from the defense to dismiss it entirely.
Masri said in a phone interview he plans on appealing his conviction.
The confrontation which led to Levy’s injuries and Masri’s arrest occurred after an Oct. 3 village board meeting, when Masri, a former trustee candidate who was considered a “disruptive” presence at village meetings by Levy, approached Trustee David Schwartz with questions about an ongoing audit of village finances.
Witnesses for both the prosecution and the defense testified that Levy belittled Masri, the two men swore at each other and Levy insulted Masri’s mother.
What happened after that – whether Masri slapped Levy with an open hand, or whether he punched Levy in the face while holding keys – was the subject of differing accounts in defense attorney Robert McDonald’s and Assistant District Attorney Christine Geier’s arguments during the trial.
McDonald said Levy’s injuries were not the result of Masri’s initial strike and portrayed the mayor as motivated by anger and a desire to discredit a troublesome political gadfly who he believed had reported financial irregularities to village auditors.
Geier cited medical testimony from the plastic surgeon who treated Levy’s head wound as evidence that the injury was sustained by a sharp object – like Masri’s keys – rather than the molding of the village hall’s dais, as the defense contended.
Geier also cast doubt on McDonald’s contention that Levy was attempting to cover up financial wrongdoing. He argued that by the time of the fight the board had already sent affidavits addressing the financial problems to the village’s auditors, so had nothing to hide.
The trial brought to light the existence of documents that highlighted auditors’ concerns about financial practices in the village, including Levy’s cashing of village checks written out to a contractor owned by a personal friend. Those documents, obtained by Blank Slate Media in June through public records requests and a confidential source, show auditors beginning to raise questions in July 2012 and include affidavits signed by Levy and contractors testifying that no fraud took place.
Missing invoices, questionable charges on the village gas card, an unaccounted purchase of a laptop and checks to a contractor personally cashed by Village of Saddle Rock Mayor Dan Levy were among the issues identified in an early warning memorandum to the village as auditing firm Satty, Levine and Ciacco prepared an audit of the village’s finances for the fiscal year ending in February 2012.
A December letter from Satty, Levine & Ciacco identified “significant deficiencies” in the village’s financial controls, months after the auditors approved the village’s financial statement for the 2012 fiscal year.
A special counsel’s review found no apparent criminality in Village of Saddle Rock Mayor Dan Levy’s cashing of village checks to pay three employees of village contractor Next Capital Corp., including his daughter, but questioned Levy’s judgment.
