'Trail of victims': Judge rejects former restaurant owner's bid for lighter sentence

WORCESTER ― Kevin Perry Jr., the man sentenced to 14 years in prison in 2018 for laundering a large fentanyl pill operation through two city restaurants, asked a federal judge Monday to reduce his prison sentence by nearly four years.

Instead, U.S. District Court Judge Margaret R. Guzman, who took over as Worcester’s sitting federal judge in August, indicated she might have given him more time in prison than her predecessor.

“He has left a trail of victims,” Guzman, ruling from the bench, said Monday following arguments from Perry’s lawyer and the government. “He may well have had a far greater number of months if I was the sentencing judge.”

Guzman's ruling quickly shot down a bid from Perry to capitalize on new federal guidelines that would have reduced his sentence recommendation — though not necessarily the sentence he received — at the time it was imposed.

Perry was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison in 2018 after pleading guilty to a slew of charges connected to allegations he used money he made selling fentanyl pills disguised as oxycodone to buy nine city properties including two restaurants.

The crimes took place while Perry was out on supervised release following an eight-year federal prison term for making and selling ecstasy pills. The case led to charges against Perry’s wife and former restaurant employees, after prosecutors said hundreds of thousands from Perry’s drug operation had been stashed in multiple places including a Northborough storage locker and a Worcester church.

In court Monday, Perry’s lawyer argued that recent, retroactive changes to the way sentencing guidelines are calculated would have reduced Perry's suggested sentence in 2018 by 17 months. The lawyer, Mark W. Shea, asked Guzman to not only shave that time off his sentence, but to knock 47 months from his prison term.

That would result in Perry being eligible for release shortly; Shea wrote in court papers that Perry, who he said has behaved well in prison, is currently on track to be released by March 2028.

Shea said Perry has taken 40 classes behind bars and is taking seriously his obligation to attempt to recover from deep-seated trauma from his childhood.

Shea told Guzman that Perry, at age 6, saw his uncle rape a close minor relative. He said Perry told his parents and acted as a witness, securing a criminal conviction for the uncle and causing lasting mental scars.

Perry ended up in the care of the state, Shea said, and spent time in various treatment facilities for mental health struggles including for thoughts of self-harm.

Shea argued that Perry’s personal trauma, combined with his good conduct in prison and the sentencing guideline revisions, supported his request. He said Perry had turned over a “significant amount of property” through his plea agreement and tried to help the government find hundreds of thousands in drug proceeds that went missing following his arrest.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg A. Friedholm strongly encouraged Guzman to reject Perry’s request.

Friedholm said the “property” Shea referred to was 14,000 fentanyl pills he was preparing to distribute in the community during the throes of the opioid crisis.

Friedholm — who in 2018 said Perry had flunked a lie detector test regarding his assets — said Monday that while Perry had turned over the location of his money, much of it “went out the back door to his wife and his father-in law.

“He was the one who told his wife where that money was,” Friedholm said, right around the time he was allegedly dealing with the government “in good faith.”

Friedholm said the government, in 2018 plea negotiations, agreed to not pursue a charge that could have landed Perry in jail for a mandatory minimum of 20 years.

The reality, Friedholm said, is that Perry sold fentanyl pills to the public while on court supervision for selling drugs, making him the “poster child” for imposing mandatory minimums on recidivist drug offenders.

He argued the changes to the sentencing  guidelines — which are not binding on judges when handing down sentences — were not meant to help inmates with a demonstrated history of recidivism like Perry.

Guzman, after hearing from both sides, said that while she appreciates the role childhood trauma can play, Perry’s record of recidivism had earned him his sentence.

“There’s no less respect for the law you can show,” she said of his 2018 conviction, noting it came “in the eye of the storm of the drug crisis.”

Guzman said Perry didn’t just commit the same crime, but “took it up a notch” in the process, involving family members and business associates, some of whom were charged.

“He has left a trail of victims,” she said, adding that, given his history, prison is the most effective way to ensure he does not reoffend.

Guzman said the 14-year sentence handed down by her predecessor, U.S. District Court Judge Timothy S. Hillman, was no doubt carefully considered, and she would not disturb it.

“(Perry) may well have had a greater number of months if I was the sentencing judge,” she said, adding she strongly suspected Hillman’s sentence “was one he (Hillman) considered to be extremely lenient in this case.”

Monday’s hearing was not Perry’s first failed attempt to secure early release, as he also was denied a bid to be released during the the COVID-19 pandemic.

Guzman said Monday that Perry’s case is one of “a number” of cases in which inmates have filed for leniency based on the revised guidelines.

“This is not going to be our last hearing (on the topic),” she said.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Judge upholds prison sentence of Kevin Perry, former restaurant owner