Markeshia Ricks Photo
Chapel Haven residents honoring the organization’s recently-expanded name, the Chapel Haven Schleifer Center, in 2018.
A former employee of Chapel Haven was sentenced to 33 months in prison on Monday, after stealing at least $240,000 from both clients and the institution — and puncturing the school’s culture of “family” trust.
Michael Verzella, a former supervisor of recreation at the Westville residential school for developmentally disabled adults, invented an at-the-door fee for Chapel Haven’s in-house recreational events, such as bingo, movie nights, and community dances. These events were already covered by students’ tuition. For years, students did not know that they were paying illegitimate charges.
Verzella collected the made-up fees in envelopes of cash for his own personal use, stealing a total of at least $68,000 over the course of several years.
He also defrauded Chapel Haven by using a company credit card for personal expenses, including sports games and fifth-row Britney Spears concert tickets, totaling $175,872 stolen between 2012 and 2018.
According to Chapel Haven staffer Michael Storz, Verzella deleted over 5,000 emails and 9,000 files before leaving his position, erasing billing information, rosters, and other records.
Verzella appeared before a U.S. District Court for a sentencing hearing on Monday afternoon, months after pleading guilty to one count of wire fraud, which has a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
At the hearing, Judge Kari Dooley sentenced him to 33 months and mandated that he pay $450,062.08 in restitution.
The sentencing occurred after an outpouring of testimony from 19 Chapel Haven student-residents, 14 families of students, and six Chapel Haven staff members, as well as from five of Verzella’s family members and Verzella himself.
Statement by statement, Chapel Haven affiliates pieced together a story of a once-beloved staff member who stole from the vulnerable population he had been trusted to protect. Many testifiers gathered six feet apart from one another across two broadcasted courtrooms, while others signed onto live court proceedings via Zoom or spoke via pre-submitted letters and videos.
Some spoke through tears about residents’ fractured sense of trust in staff members after the theft was discovered. Some noted that intellectually disabled adults face particular difficulties in learning how to budget and finding an adequately-paying job. Some pointed to fiscal difficulties that Chapel Haven itself faced as a non-profit, which resulted in layoffs and pay cuts for other employees as Verzella cashed in.
Meanwhile, Verzella’s family members painted a portrait of a man who felt remorse for his actions to the point of developing clinical depression. They pleaded for a lighter sentence, arguing that nothing fruitful would come from jail time, and that Verzella has already begun to undergo a self-inflicted punishment in the form of lasting shame for his actions.
Chapel Haven students testified that they had been financially affected by the incident to varying degrees. Verzella stole $1,071 from Keith Atkins. He took around $2,000 from Shawn Feldman. Around $3,000 from Matthew Baker. Over $4,300 from Andy Goldberg.
One student, Matthew Pepe, delivered his victim impact statement via Zoom in front of the blue-gray walls of his home. Pepe said that Verzella — who had been affectionately known as “Mike V.” to most Chapel Haven students — was a “very good friend and a good staff to me when I first met him.”
It “broke my heart,” he said, to learn that Verzella had stolen from him and others at the school.
“It’s gonna be very hard for me and for my mom, my dad, and for my friends and staff and everyone else at Chapel Haven,” he said.
Dylan, another student, works as a cafeteria assistant for New Haven Public Schools.
“I have used my paycheck to pay for Chapel Haven rec trips,” he said. “My parents got a bill, but many times I also had to pay actual money out of my own pocket. Nobody ever explained why that was.”
“I work really hard and I earned my money,” he said. “I felt that Mike V. used me and my parents.”
Emily Westman, the new recreation supervisor at Chapel Haven, recalled working under Verzella as a college student. “My least favorite part of the job was collecting the cash for on campus activities and turning clients away if they did not have the money,” she said. “There were times that, as a struggling college student, I would put my own money in to cover a client.”
When she asked Verzella why there were fees, she said he responded, “It’s cushion money for the department.”
“As a young 23-year-old I remember thinking to myself, ‘it seems odd, but what do I know?’” she said.
Now, Westman said, some students are still mistrustful of the recreation program and avoid going to social events as a result.
Peggy Baker — the chair of Chapel Haven’s board of directors and a parent to Matthew Baker, who has been at Chapel Haven for ten years — spoke to this sense of breached trust, along with several other family members and staffers. Baker and others portrayed a close-knit culture at the school, where staff tend to be deeply invested in their students’ successes.
“Mr. Verzella and the rec staff were like family to Matt and I. He would help talk Matt into taking trips that he was not sure he wanted to go on,” Baker said. “Mr. Verzella went out of his way to gain Matt’s trust — only to prey on him.”
When a new recreation staff member was hired, Baker recalled that her son asked her, “Mommy, is this person going to take my money, too?”
She added that while the three thousand dollars stolen from her son might not sound like much to some, “when you only make $8,000 a year from SSI [Supplemental Security Income], it sure is a lot.”
William Dow, Verzella’s attorney, urged the judge to set aside the heated emotions expressed by the Chapel Haven affiliates and to instead look at the matter rationally.
“This is a credit card offense,” he stressed. “Sentencing based on anger, a need for revenge, is probably not a just sentence.”
Verzella’s wife, Lisa Verzella, argued that prison time would not be a productive response for any of the parties involved. Sending her husband to jail would put a massive strain on their family, she said. She urged the judge to allow Verzella to work and pay off his restitution, as well as provide for his family, instead of spending time in prison.
“Make Mike have to live with his consequences each and every day and not avoid them, and do everything he can to make his wrongs right,” she said.
David Verzella, Verzella’s father, spoke about his son’s gift with working with children and adults with special needs. “You usually associate a certain type of person who does that type of activity,” he said, referring to fraud. “They’re selfish… He’s not that type of person.”
He said Verzella’s actions stemmed from “extremely poor judgment,” but added, “it is my firm belief that he would never intentionally harm a client.”
When Verzella himself stood up to testify, he apologized to Chapel Haven and to his family.
“Please know it was never my intention to take advantage of students at Chapel Haven,” he said. “Through many discussions with my therapist, family, and friends, I have learned about the person I pretended to be and the good person I am inside.”
After a short recess, Judge Dooley issued her decision. She called Verzella’s actions “despicable.”
“While the conduct is, on its face, bad, when you add to the equation who you stole from, it becomes irreconcilable with the good and moral person you claim to be and who your family believes you to be,” she said. “When the employer is a cash-strapped non-for-profit, the injury is greater and the conduct worse.”
While Dooley questioned whether the materials submitted by the defense demonstrated that Verzella was truly remorseful, she said that the family’s testimony had convinced her that he was at least beginning to reckon with the weight of his crime.
“I will tell you, that has brought your sentence down,” she said.