Ex-Councilman Fagen Leaves Prison Early

Former Long Beach City Councilman Michael Fagen, who on June 12 was sentenced to 30 days in prison for illegally collecting unemployment insurance, was released after 17 days of serving his time last month. 

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Fagen, 56, was imprisoned at Nassau County Correctional Center in East Meadow and released on June 28 after Justice Meryl Berkowitz handed him a 30-day sentence and five years of probation at Nassau County Court. He was only required to spend 20 days in prison and was released earlier for good behavior, Marc Gann, Fagen’s attorney, told Patch.

“On a thirty-day sentence you get a third off for good behavior,” he said.

In February a jury convicted Fagen on charges that he collected unemployment insurance illegally while he earned more than $19,000 a year as a councilman in 2010. He was convicted on 18 counts of offering a false instrument for filing, a felony, and one count of petit larceny, a misdemeanor. Jurors failed to reach verdicts on the top charge, one count of third-degree grand larceny, and 20 additional counts of offering a false instrument for filing. Berkowitz ordered Fagen to pay full restitution at $15,783 to the State Department of Labor. 

“I think he certainly paid a large debt for an offense that I’m not sure others would have been treated the same way,” Gann said of his client, who was elected to the city council in 2009. “So I’d like to think and hope that he’s going to get on with his life, find a job and move forward.”

On Fagen's felony conviction, the City of Long Beach forced him to resign from the council and Eileen Goggin, an attorney, was appointed to fill out his term that ends in December.