Greed and, by his own admission, “stupidity” will cost Griffin’s Landscaping owner Glenn Griffin two years of his life in a federal prison.
U.S. District Judge Vincent Briccetti’s sixth-floor White Plains courtroom was packed Wednesday afternoon, June 11, as nearly 150 family, friends and workers attended in solidarity with Griffin during the two-hour sentencing hearing.
Pronouncing a sentence of two years, Judge Briccetti recounted Griffin’s qualities as a successful businessman who holds major landscape contracts in New York City and is financially very well off. He said Griffin has created hundreds of jobs and credited him for his blue-collar background and his many charitable contributions.
But Briccetti said Griffin gained unauthorized access to the town of Cortlandt’s Arlo Lane dump by paying cash bribes to town worker Robert Dyckman so Griffin could dump materials after hours.
“This kind of corruption has real consequences,” Judge Briccetti said. “This was not an isolated act and was driven by pure greed given you hardly needed the money and are worth [millions]. What you did is appalling and deserves prison time.”
Griffin speaks to the court, his supporters
Told by Judge Briccetti he could address the court, Griffin rose at the defense table and, choking through his words, spoke tearfully at first.
“I want to apologize to my friends, family and employees,” he said “I wish I could take it all back because of the severe toll this has taken on everyone. No matter what you think of me, all I care about is saving these people’s jobs. The man who protects them every day put their lives in harm’s way.”
He recounted his early life starting in business with two employees cutting 100 lawns a week when he was in the 10th grade. “What I did [in this case] is uncharacteristic of my life – it was stupidity.”
In a letter to Judge Briccetti, Griffin wrote: “I am not the man I was when these offenses occurred. I am someone who has been humbled, who has learned painful and valuable lessons, and who is committed to living with integrity moving forward.”
In the White Plains courtroom, green or orange Griffin company t-shirts and workboots far outnumbered the three-piece business suits and $500 dress shoes. Supporters filled all the benches, sat in the jury box and lined the wall along the window, standing two deep for the two-hour hearing. Several sobs were heard in the courtroom while the sentence was read.
Judge Briccetti said he typically would revoke bail in a similar case and take the defendant into custody but he granted a defense request to allow Griffin 90 days to report to prison. He will surrender on Sept. 11 at a prison to be determined.
Disputes still exist over responsibility for damages
Cortlandt operates a dumpsite at Arlo Lane where contractors bring construction debris and other waste materials on a regular basis. Westchester Land Trust (WLT) owns an adjacent wetlands property. How the waste material wound up in the wetlands is still under dispute. Griffin’s defenders have suggested that the material was pushed into the wetlands by someone else but that he never dumped there.
Griffin and co-defendant Robert Dyckman must pay a total of $2.4 million in restitution for the damage claimed by the Town of Cortlandt and Westchester Land Trust. Dyckman received a sentence of one year and one month earlier from Judge Briccetti. At the June 11 hearing, Cortlandt Town Attorney Michael Burke said the town could seek an additional $2.6 million from Griffin, claiming asbestos found in the material at Arlo Lane came from Griffin.
Griffin’s attorney is expected to appeal the length of the sentence, possibly arguing that the dollar amount of damage is too high and unproved. The length of the sentence is determined in part by the amount of the monetary damage.
Arguing for a lighter sentence at the hearing, Griffin’s attorney Jeffrey Hoffman told Judge Briccetti he disputes the extent of the damages claimed. “There is zero evidence that he dumped in the wetlands. There is no casual connection that he caused the problem [of contaminated wetlands],” Hoffman said. “Critically, neither [Westchester Land Trust], the Town, nor the Government accounts for numerous intervening causes that could have, and likely did, contribute to the ultimate harm suffered by the WLT and the Town,” Hoffman wrote in court papers.
At a Dec. 5, 2024 court hearing, Griffin denied any responsibility for damaging the wetlands. “What’s accurate is, number one, I did not fill in the wetlands, and I’m not responsible for one iota in the Westchester Land Trust. It never happened. I couldn’t get there and I did not do it. We tried to convey that to [the assistant U.S. attorney] and he did not want to hear it.”
Government claims, response from Griffin’s defenders
Griffin, 56, of Cortlandt Manor, pled guilty on Aug. 26, 2024 to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery and one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, each carrying a maximum sentence of five years in prison. He said then that he bribed town employee and co-defendant Robert Dyckman to let him dump construction debris and other material at the Cortlandt town facility at Arlo Lane during off-hours. He tried to withdraw the plea but his request was denied by Judge Briccetti on March 13.
Griffin and Dyckman were arrested on July 21, 2022. The government charged him with dumping several hundred truckloads of material from November 2018 to September 2019 during periods when the dump was closed.
In a statement following the June 11 sentencing, U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said Griffin deserved the punishment he received.
“Glenn Griffin and Robert Dyckman’s corruption not only damaged public land and fragile wetlands but also undermined the public’s faith in our government and institutions,” Clayton said.
“Griffin, a successful business owner and president, bribed Dyckman so that he could save money and, in the process, illegally dump harmful, unauthorized materials on public property generating $2.4 million in damages.
“Moreover, Griffin then took government money to remove and haul away the very materials that he had illegally dumped. Together with our law enforcement partners, we are committed to rooting out such brazen and wasteful corruption.”
But Griffin’s many defenders insist that his actions were wrong but not criminal to the point of deserving jail time. They say Griffin did buy lunches, give some free materials and small cash tips to get access to the Arlo Lane dump in off-hours to save time dumping materials and avoid delays when the site was busy.
They deny that Griffin brought any banned materials into the dump and that other contractors dumped the same materials there for many years.
The impact of a prison sentence
While Griffin owns several businesses, including the Hilltop Nursery in Croton, the vast majority of his revenue and his workers comes from Griffin’s Landscaping through the contracts he has won for many years planting trees in New York City.
When he was indicted two years ago, a court monitor was appointed by New York City to oversee the company and remove Griffin from daily operations.
According to William J. LaCalamito, president and controller of Griffin’s Landscaping, Glenn Griffin has not been an officer or employee or associated with Griffin’s Landscaping in any way for the past two years under the agreement with the City of New York.
He resigned from Griffin’s Landscaping on April 20, 2023, and, while he is still the owner, has not been involved in any aspect of the operations of Griffin’s Landscaping since then. Kenneth Eade was appointed managing director of Griffin’s Landscaping on April 20, 2023. He has been, and continues, operating the company.
New York City also required a surety bond to guarantee that Griffin’s would complete its New York City contracts after he was indicted. Griffin guaranteed the bonds with more than $20 million of his own money.
According to people familiar with the situation, Griffin’s current contracts with New York City running through a part of 2026 should be secure. Once he goes to prison, the chance to get future bonds to secure any New York City work he might bid on next year seems highly doubtful.
Judge Briccetti allowed three speakers to address the court, and just as Griffin did when he spoke, they all emphasized that the jobs and lives of hundreds of workers and their families could be at risk if Griffin goes to jail. “My skills set me 98% apart from other landscape designers and I’m the only person who can speak with the clients and sell the jobs,” Griffin said. “My day starts at 6 a.m. and ends at 6 or 7 p.m. six days a week and sometimes on Sundays. My office is my truck — I don’t sit behind a desk and don’t have a computer.”
Judge Briccetti said that that Griffin has had enough time to train others to take his place and that although imprisonment will have a negative effect on Griffin’s employees, he is sure they can find other jobs.
Contacted by the Peekskill Herald, Griffin’s Landscaping president and controller LaCalamito echoed the thoughts of many of Griffin’s employees and friends. “Our thoughts and prayers are with Glenn and his family as they struggle through these difficult times,” he wrote in an email.
Griffin’s attorney Hoffman did not return an email request for comment.
