Thanks to a raft of falsified ballots, Alfortish won re-election and a slate of his hand-picked candidates were elected to the board. Alfortish admitted using the association's medical benefits trust fund for personal expenses and settling a sexual harassment grievance for $25,000, then reimbursing himself and calling it "back pay."
P.J. Stakelum III, a lawyer for the horsemen's group, encouraged Fallon to require Alfortish to pay back hundreds of thousands of dollars to the horsemen, saying the group is struggling because of his mismanagement. But Fallon found that while some of Alfortish's fiscal practices were suspect, only $105,105 had been clearly misspent.
Before Fallon imposed the sentence, Alfortish delivered a lengthy soliloquy, his voice cracking repeatedly as he tried to maintain his composure before a courtroom packed with relatives and supporters.
He was at turns self-pitying and remorseful, saying that his words and actions have repeatedly been taken out of context and that he took the helm of the horsemen's group only so that he could help the people who worked there.
Alfortish, who formerly served as a magistrate judge in Kenner, said he chose his career as a lawyer so that he could "fight for people. I didn't do it for money. I didn't do it for recognition."
He complained that he had been "ridiculed" and had his "reputation trashed" while a "public execution" played out. And he pleaded with Fallon not to tear his family apart, saying he had never spent a night apart from his 8-year-old daughter.
"I ask you to look at my life as a whole," he said. "I beg you for leniency. That's all I have left now."
But the judge -- much as when he sentenced City Hall tech vendor Mark St. Pierre last year -- said that Alfortish's strong support network and high educational attainment made him that much more of a disappointment.
