October 27, 2004 -- SUPERMODEL Maggie Rizer's stepfather could get up to 800 years in jail after pleading guilty to ripping her off for $7 million.
As we first reported last year, Rizer's stepdad, John Breen, gambled away the covergirl's cash after she ill-advisedly put him in charge of her finances. However, the full extent of his spree was unknown until Breen pled guilty last Friday.
Breen copped to felony counts of first, second- and third-degree grand larceny, first-degree scheming to defraud and two counts of criminal possession of a forged instrument. He will be sentenced on Jan. 3 in the family's upstate hometown, Watertown.
Beginning in May 1998, Breen mostly gambled away his stepdaughter's earnings. In a plea for leniency, his lawyer, James R. McGraw, declared Breen has "been through several treatment programs," had "a severe alcohol problem" and "suffered from depression [and] an addiction to gambling."
Breen has agreed to pay restitution up to $7 million, but McGraw notes he doesn't have the dough. Rizer's lawyer, Ed Hayes, has speculated that he might have plenty of cash stashed away.
Rizer, who modeled for Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger among others, put on weight during her travails and dropped out of the scene for a while but is now poised for a comeback. Her biological father died of AIDS when she was 14; Breen later married her mother, Maureen.
"If there is one thing I hate it's an Irish guy who betrays his family and then whines it's because he's a drunk," Hayes (who's also Irish-American) told PAGE SIX's Jared Paul Stern. "He was drunk for four years? He never realized stealing millions was a crime in this world and the next?"
Hayes declares, "I just hope we can get some of the money back for this lovely, hard-working, young woman. It is much to her credit that she has been in the gym every day and has put her career back together."
Meanwhile, Hayes is battling with the mayor of Watertown, Jeffrey E. Graham. Hayes notes Breen gambled away most of the money playing Quick Draw at the Speak Easy tavern, which is owned by Graham.
"It makes me very uncomfortable that [Breen] allegedly washed all of this money through the mayor's bar and that's not being investigated," Hayes told the Watertown Daily Times. Graham says that's "slander."
__________________
"I abhor television. Notice how i said 'television' and not 'TV' because TV is a nickname and nicknames are for friends and television is no friend of mine" - Nick Valensi
__________________
Now what the hell is the difference between a painting done by someone who chooses to paint like a child, and a child's painting? - Patsy Stone my blog - random musings of a fashion fiend
i feel so sorry for her...i think that her look introduced this modern (fashion) generation to those irish good looks we enjoy so much in stam among others...
__________________
Everything is never quite enough.
It's not like he killed someone... they should try giving out those kind of sentences for rape/child abuse etc. 800 years for fraud and embezzlement seems somewhat extreme. I mean who is the real victim here (I feed badly for Maggie and all, but she still has her life, her career, her looks - he took her money, that's bad, but that's all he took).
Originally posted by softgrey@Oct 28 2004, 10:41 AM true...mike...but it's still a lot...i agree with that...rapists get only 3-5 yrs sometimes...
anyway...that's the maximum sentence he could possibly get...he probably won't actually get anything near that...
[snapback]409211[/snapback]
Nah, I bet he doesn't, either. Well, of course he won't.
This is a travisty... really... that people who commit murders and such are out after twenty years, yet this man has a maximum sentence of 800 yrs... ridiculous how the system works.
But what I'm wondering... is how he spent that 7 mill so quickly, that she didn't notice? I mean... that's a lot to just spend away without anybody noticing.
It's still A LOT though! 
Linear Mode
