His appellate options likely exhausted, disgraced political consultant John Haggerty finally turned himself in this morning to begin serving a sentence of at least one-and-a-third years in prison.
Haggerty had been convicted back in October 2011 of stealing $750,000 in campaign cash from Mayor Bloomberg — a theft first exposed three years ago in a series of stories in The Post.
The thieving consultant gave a sporting smile to his lawyer and to Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Ronald Zwiebel as he was handcuffed and led out to a holding pen for processing.
“I don’t think anybody goes in happily, but he’s been in for a brief period before,” said his lawyer Paul Shechtman.
Haggerty had served three weeks of his sentence immediately after his conviction. The state Appellate Division had then allowed him to remain free on bail until last month, when it rejected his appeal.
Haggerty is making a long-shot appellate application before the state’s highest court, Albany’s Court of Appeals; barring good news from that court, he would be eligible for work release in about a year, his lawyer said.
The greedy consultant had been convicted of money laundering and grand larceny for falsely promising Mayor Bloomberg that he’d conduct a massive election day 2009 ballot security operation.
Bloomberg took the stand at Haggerty’s trial, telling jurors that he’d made a $1.1 million donation to the state Independence Party in expectation that the money would be used to pay for poll monitoring.
Instead, the security operation never materialized despite what Haggerty had stated in multiple bogus proposals, budgets and invoices. Instead, Haggerty pocketed $750,000 of the money, using it to purchase his childhood home in Forest Hills, Queens.
The money has since been repaid, Schechtman said. Haggerty had faced a whopping maximum prison term of up to 15 years; he lost his marriage, his savings and, in his own view, his honor, in the scandal.
“Today my reputation is destroyed,” Haggerty had said at his December, 2011 sentencing. “I can promise you I will devote the rest of my life to being a productive and law abiding member of the city and state.”