Ronald House Sentenced on Obstruction of Justice Charges

ALBANY, NY—Richard S. Hartunian, United States Attorney for the Northern District of New York, announced that Ronald L. House, 58, of Rochester, New York, was sentenced today in Buffalo, New York, on his November 2013 conviction for three counts of obstruction of justice and one count of making materially false statements.

Honorable William M. Skretny, Chief United States District Judge for the Western District of New York, sentenced House to 48 months’ imprisonment, two years’ supervised release, and a money judgment of $32,000.

House’s conviction came after a jury trial in Buffalo, New York, charging that he endeavored to obstruct justice on behalf of criminal defendants with cases pending in the United States District Court in Rochester. He was convicted of obstructing two cases by endeavoring to fraudulently attribute information to criminal defendants that they could use in exchange for sentencing leniency and, in one case, for pre-trial release. As to a third case, he was also convicted of obstructing justice by making false representations to a United States Probation Officer in an effort to persuade the officer from filing a supervised release violation against the offender.

House was also convicted of making materially false statements to the then-director of a Rochester halfway house in order to obtain extra liberty for an inmate by falsely representing that the inmate was going to be with House at a church men’s group, while knowing that the inmate instead was going to use the time to spend time with a girlfriend.

House’s arrest and conviction are the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation-Buffalo Division, the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation, New York Field Office, the City of Rochester Office of Public Integrity, and the Rochester Police Department. The prosecution was handled by Northern District of New York Assistant U.S. Attorney Lisa Fletcher, who can be reached at 315-448-0672.