The Loop
Judge gives Craig Carton a savage greeting in court before handing out jail sentence
Raymond Hall
Former WFAN radio personality Craig Carton received a 42-month prison on Friday for his involvement in an illegal ticket-selling scheme, but he also got something he wasn't expecting from U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon: a pretty savage greeting.
“Hello, Mr. Carton. Colleen M. from New York. First time, long time."
Ouch. Those "Ira from Staten Island" calls must seem like a dream now, huh?
Actually, the greeting wasn't as bad as it sounds. Judge McMahon claims she used to listen to Carton's former morning program, "Boomer & Carton," on her way to work so she may have been a fan. Or, at least, a fan of Boomer Esiason. And she could have doled out a six-to-seven-year sentence set forth by federal guidelines and being sought by prosecutors against the 50-year-old New Yorker. But make no mistake about it, her honor wasn't messing around in a Manhattan courtroom.
“You’ve lost everything worth having,” McMahon said. “It’s pretty horrible. And you did it to yourself.”
And later: “If it sounds like a little bit like what a guy named Madoff did, that’s because it is."
Carton, whose defense pleaded for leniency based on his "severe gambling addiction," was convicted in November of defrauding investors out of millions of dollars.