When disbarred lawyer Gustavo Vila admitted to stealing $900,000 in World Trade Center compensation owed to a retired cop and friend, he faced more than just federal prison time.
He also lost contact with his son, an NYPD officer he claims broke off their relationship over the betrayal.
Vila will be sentenced Monday in federal court in White Plains and his lawyer has asked for a 3-year prison term. In seeking leniency, Vila cites all that he has lost already — with his wife divorcing him and his son wanting nothing to do with him — and his past police service that included helping out at Ground Zero.
Prosecutors want him sentenced to 4 years and three months in prison. They argue that he didn’t learn from a prior conviction and should have known better than to defraud a fellow ex-cop who he knew needed the financial assistance.
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| Gustavo Vila leaves federal courthouse after pleading guilty |
The victim, ex-NYPD traffic cop John Ferreyra, suffered health problems including cancer as a result of the 12-16 hour days he spent searching for and recovering victims of the Twin Tower bombings.
Ferreyra and his wife were friends with Vila, who lived in Yorktown, had a law practice in Westchester County and was also a retired cop.
In 2012, Vila was retained by Ferreyra and applied to the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund on his behalf.
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| John Ferreyra and President George W. Bush |
Three years later, the lawyer was disbarred after being charged with grand larceny for keeping a woman’s down payment for a home. He was put on probation the following year after pleading guilty and paying restitution.
Vila never told Ferreyra any of that.
In 2016, the fund sent over $1.03 million to Vila for Ferreyra. Vila would have been entitled to 10 percent. Instead, the $103,000 was the amount he gave Ferreyra, insisting for three years that the rest of the money was never paid out.
He was confronted last year after Ferreyra learned of the disbarment and contacted Fund administrators, who told him the money had been paid. Vila asked Ferreyra not to report him to law enforcement.
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| John Ferreyra |
Defense lawyer Susanne Brody’s request for a 3-year prison term is below the sentencing guidelines of 41-51 months that U.S. District Judge Vincent Briccetti must consider.
Ferreyra contends the guidelines mark the only leniency Vila deserves, as the maximum sentence he faces is 10 years. One of his current lawyers, Bruce Kaye, called it an "an exceptionally serious crime by a predicate felon against a 9/11 hero cop" and that anything less than a 51-month prison term "would promote disrespect for the law."
In an interview Friday, Ferreyra said he felt bad for Vila and the "stupid decisions" he made. But he was struck by his former friend's failure to learn from his earlier crime. He said "the better man" would have taken the fee to which he was entitled and been satisfied with that.
"He was just waiting for my money so he could pay off his debt," Ferreyra said..
But Brody argued that Vila’s good qualities should outweigh “the past few years where he has spun out of control.”
Vila, 62, was a lieutenant in the NYPD and served as special counsel to the police commissioner before retiring in 2002 to become a lawyer full time. By 2010 his law practice was run into the ground by his partner, who declared bankruptcy after Vila claims he spent the firm’s money on vacations and personal expenses.
In a letter to the judge, Vila wrote of overcoming an abusive father and becoming a cop always committed to helping others. He said he had lost his moral compass after facing insurmountable debt when the partnership dissolved. He had to borrow from friends and family but could never catch up.
He recalled how as an undercover narcotics officer he often had guns put to his head. “(I) always took that moment of pause to make the right decision. But yet here I failed to do so.”
He suggested the shorter time he is incarcerated the quicker he can find employment that will allow him to pay Ferreyra back.
“I am not remorseful because I was caught,” he wrote. “I am repentant because I have had time to reflect and look deep inside my soul contemplating my actions and speaking with others who know me and know of the despicable act and situation that I have put myself in but most of all, the terrible pain and damage I have caused John Ferreyra and his family.”
Ferreyra is worried that no amount of employment will allow Vila to make full restitution.
Ferreyra
has received about $60,000 from Vila and the maximum allowed $400,000
from the state Lawyers' Fund for Client Protection. Once Vila repays the
more than $450,000 Ferreyra is still owed, anything more Vila comes up
with would reimburse the lawyers' fund.
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