Former Suffolk Conservative Party Chief Edward Walsh released from prison, record shows

Former Suffolk County Conservative Party leader Edward Walsh has been released from federal prison after serving most of his two-year sentence for wire fraud and theft of government services, a record shows.

Walsh was released on Thursday from Federal Medical Center Devens, a federal prison hospital in Massachusetts, to a halfway house in Brooklyn, according to federal Bureau of Prison records.

The former party leader is not scheduled to complete his total sentence until July 13, but it is not unusual for a federal prisoner to be released to some sort of halfway house arrangement in transition to civilian life before the actual end of a sentence.

Walsh declined on Friday to comment on his release.

He was convicted in 2016 of pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars in pay from the Suffolk sheriff’s department while golfing, gambling and politicking on county time.

Walsh, 53, of East Islip, who worked as a lieutenant in the sheriff’s department, was ordered by U.S. District Court Judge Arthur Spatt, at the federal courthouse in Central Islip, to make $202,000 in restitution, forfeit an additional $245,000, and serve three years of supervised release.

He was convicted of the charges in March 2016 after a 10-day trial by a jury that deliberated for only an hour. He was sentenced on June 21.

Walsh began serving this sentence in October 2017 at the Morgantown Federal Correctional Institution, in West Virginia, a minimum security facility on a rolling green campus. It is 435 miles away from Long Island, or about a seven-and-a-half hour drive.

But he was transferred to Devens about a year ago because of a foot injury, sources said.

At trial, the government’s case against Walsh was based substantially on FBI agents comparing the time sheets Walsh had submitted to the sheriff’s department with the records of his locations based on his telephone, credit cards, golfing and gambling outings. In addition to golfing, gambling and politicking, an agent also testified that Walsh billed the sheriff’s department for time at his tailors and at home.

Defense attorneys maintained that Walsh was supposed to serve as a liaison for the sheriff’s department to government officials and the public, and that he had flexibility over when and where he worked. Government prosecutors argued that Walsh was supposed to be on duty at the sheriff’s department and that he was supposed to follow a regular schedule of shifts there.

By Robert E. Kessler

Robert.Kessler@newsday.com

Bob Kessler covers federal law, including law enforcement agencies such as the FBI, DEA, IRS and ATF, as well as the federal courts.