Former Philly Sports Anchor Gets 2-4 Years for Fraud

Former Philly Sports Anchor and convicted scammer, Don Tollefson was sentenced to 2-4 years for scamming people out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Tollefson turned down a plea deal that would have given him only 7 months in jail and headed to trial that was full of bizarre rants from the former sports Anchor. 

At his sentencing, it remained bizarre. A psychologist claimed that the former sportscaster told him that his mother forced him to sleep in her bed throughout his childhood and well into college.

But the proceeding mostly focused on the fallen icon's future and his potential for redemption. After fleecing 200 people in a sports ticket-selling scheme, Tollefson was sentenced by a county judge to two to four years in state prison and 15 years' probation for felony money laundering, fraud, and theft.

If he behaves, Tollefson, 62, can get early release in 14 months with time served. And his probation can end in just 10 years if he pays everyone back.

Before the judge handed down her sentence, psychologist Steven Samuel testified that he had interviewed Tollefson in jail and found the former sportscaster to suffer from characteristics of narcissism.

He said the condition, which includes inflated self-worth and a lack of empathy, likely stems from Tollefson's upbringing in San Francisco. Samuel said Tollefson told him that Tollefson's mother forced him to sleep in her bed and gave him daily enemas until he was 16. Thus began a cycle of depression and self-medicated drinking and later prescription painkillers, Samuel said.

"He is not a person who thinks he's God," Samuel said. "He hates himself."

Before learning his fate, Tollefson stood before the judge dressed in a blue suit, looking frail but expressing himself with characteristic hand gestures despite his shackled wrists.

"Every day for me is a day of humiliating reflection for what I did to people who didn't deserve what I did," Tollefson said.

After the sentencing, some of Tollefson's victims said the sentence wasn't long enough. And one of them, Cindy Moffitt, said she doesn't expect to get her money back.

"That's a joke," she said.

H/T Philly Inquirer