Ex-Tampa Housing Authority employee gets 18 months in scam

TAMPA -- A former Tampa Housing Authority employee was sentenced today to 18 months in federal prison for using bogus landlords to steal tens of thousands of dollars in U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grant money.

Mario Lovett, 30, pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge and was also ordered to pay more than $182,000 in restitution.

Prosecutors said Lovett and two other former Housing Authority employees recruited friends and relatives to pose as landlords in the agency's Housing Assistance Payments program. Calvin Coleman and Carlton Miles, the other former Section 8 counselors charged in the scheme, have both pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.

Several bogus landlords also have entered guilty pleas.

As a Section 8 counselor, Lovett had the ability to put names of landlords into the Housing Authority's database so those individuals would receive checks subsidizing the rents of their tenants. Prosecutors said that Lovett, Coleman and Miles used the names of tenants who had either died or been evicted so that legitimate landlords wouldn't complain about not receiving payments.

In some cases, prosecutors said the men used fictitious property addresses for the bogus landlords or addresses of properties already in the Housing Authority's system.

Defense attorney Robert Hearn asked U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday to consider Lovett's overall good character and sentence him to probation instead of prison.

Lovett grew up in North Boulevard Homes in West Tampa. He was raised by his grandmother and had little, if any, relationship with his parents growing up.

Attorney John Phillips called Lovett a standout in the Brains in Basketball program that Lovett began participating in at age 12. Phillips helped facilitate the program and said Lovett was always the first to complete any task and served as a role model among the other middle and high school participants.

"He's a remarkable individual despite the fact that he's standing before you today," Phillips told the judge.

Speaking on his own behalf, Lovett talked about overcoming the obstacles of his childhood. He steered clear of the drugs and other temptations, he said, choosing instead to focus on basketball.

He became a star at Leto High School and earned a full athletic scholarship to the University of Central Florida, where he served as captain of the basketball team and graduated with a psychology degree.

"In this case, it was just a wrong turn at that time in my life," Lovett said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Cherie Krigsman called Lovett the "key" to their prosecution of the HUD embezzlement crime. Lovett came in immediately after a federal agent approached him and gave investigators vital information to build their case, Krigsman said.

"If Mr. Lovett had not cooperated the way he did, we would still be building the case," Krigsman said.

Merryday called the crime "disruptive, disheartening, and embarrassing and disrespectful." In a time when agencies of all kinds are cutting back on spending because of budget problems, Merryday said, "here is money leaking, hemorrhaging in a particular area."

"I've tried to think back and imagine why Mr. Lovett would do this. I guess he was introduced into an environment where this was the governing culture," Merryday said. "It's a serious felony against the United States of America, implicating a lot of people criminally. The damage side of this thing is kind of big, and we just can't be dismissive of that."

-Kevin Graham, Times staff writer