BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- The former director of the Alabama Organ Center was sentenced this morning to 13 months in prison for his guilty plea in a nearly $500,00 kickback scheme with a Birmingham area funeral home.
Demosthenes Yanga Lalisan, former director of the center, also was ordered by U.S. District Judge David Proctor to be jointly responsible, with former associate center director Richard Alan Hicks, for restitution of $498,551 to the University of Alabama Health Services Foundation.
Hicks is to be sentenced June 5 for his guilty plea to charges in the case. Lalisan is scheduled to report to prison June 7. The exact prison is yet to be designated.
Lalisan apologized during the hearing to his family, friends, and former colleagues at the Alabama Organ Center where he had worked 19 years. "I damaged our mission that I had vowed to preserve," he told the judge.
Proctor said that Lalison should be out of prison _ considering that he would probably get good time credit in prison _ by the time his 16-year-old son graduates from Hoover High School next year. He also has two younger daughters.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Anne Holt told the judge that not only was Lalisan involved in a financial crime, but he also engaged in a fraudulent scheme that put Alabama's organ donation and recovery system "in jeopardy." People have to be able to trust that organ donation system, she said.
Holt objected to the sentence after Proctor had ruled. Stephen Shaw, attorney for Lalisan, said that he was pleased Proctor considered their arguments and the facts in arriving at the sentence.
Read more: http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2012/05/ex-alabama_organ_center_chief.html
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