The chief judge of the federal court in Boston dressed down a former Massachusetts state senator and his attorney when the defendant once again made a move that delayed his sentencing on fraud charges.
“I am unhappy,” U.S. District Court Chief Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV said at what should have been ex-State Sen. Dean Tran’s sentencing Friday morning. “I am unhappy that Mr. Walsh is late. I am unhappy that Mr. Tran was in the hallway.”
Tran, 48, of Fitchburg, was convicted on Sept. 11 following a six-day trial on 20 counts of wire fraud and three counts of filing false tax returns. He was indicted on November 2023. The Republican represented Worcester and Middlesex Counties from 2017 to January 2021.
Saylor had first set sentencing for Dec. 4, 2024. Defense attorney Michael Walsh then filed a slew of motions for acquittal, altering the judgment, a new trial, and appealed before Saylor set a new sentencing date for Friday morning.
The sentencing hearing scheduled for 10 a.m. started a bit late as the court waited for Walsh. When Walsh arrived at the defense team desk, Tran was not with him — but Walsh assured Saylor that Tran was just in the hallway.
Saylor was further “unhappy” that when he started his day, he saw a defense sentencing memo that was filed overnight and that includes materials that both prosecutors and probation would have to respond to, thus further delaying the sentencing. Saylor scheduled a new sentencing date of Feb. 7.
“It's unfair to me. It's unfair to the government. It's unfair to the people who have made time to be here,” Saylor said, with a sigh. “It's unfair, it's inappropriate and I feel like I have no choice but to continue this hearing … Because of counsel’s failure to adhere to a basic set of deadlines.”
Walsh said that he was “working as diligently as possible” and filed the memo at 3:30 that morning. Saylor said that he and probably everyone else was “asleep in bed” at that time and that he “certainly wasn't waiting for it.”
Prosecutors are asking that Tran spend two years in prison — as well as a $75,000 fine, restitution and monetary forfeiture — as he is “deserving” of such a sentence to “hold him responsible and punish him for his fraud, deceit and lies,” according to their own sentencing memo.
Tran applied for and received COVID-19 unemployment assistance while he was employed as a consultant for an automotive parts company at $90 an hour — which is fraud. He also, prosecutors wrote, “willfully and repeatedly cheated on his 2020, 2021 and 2022 taxes.”
“TRAN has shown no remorse for his crimes or accepted responsibility for his actions. Instead, he has attempted to obstruct justice, cast blame elsewhere and made baseless accusations that have absolutely no support in law or fact,” federal prosecutors John Mulcahy and Dustin Chao wrote in their sentencing memo filed on Monday.
Tran took to Facebook after sentencing to share his thoughts on the case, as he often does.
“The judge delayed the sentencing for another two weeks to review my attorney's late filing in response to the prosecution's 23-page fiction,” Tran wrote. “The judge was not happy but who can blame my attorney? He is going up against the US Attorney's office with unlimited resources.”
“They already won. I lost my congressional race and I didn't run in 2024. Believe me, I am innocent. This should terrify everyone!” he continued. He said that he wasn't given an opportunity to explain that he was tardy to court because he was “in prayer with my Christian family in the hallway.”
Prosecutors say Tran has exhibited “utter disrespect for the law and the legal process.”
“His misguided and empty claims of selective prosecution show that he is not above committing fraud again to serve his own interests,” Mulcahy and Chao wrote. “His refusal to accept responsibility and claims that he did nothing wrong suggest that he would reoffend again and make it especially important that his sentence reflect the importance of deterrence.”
Tran has asked President-elect Trump to pardon him, has said he made bad choices because he's suffering from PTSD after witnessing a shooting, and has asked for “post-trial contact with jurors” because he feels he was improperly convicted.
