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Michael Grimm Tries to Delay Prison Term to Have Surgery

By Nicholas Rizzi | September 1, 2015 1:10pm
 Former congressman Michael Grimm asked a judge to push back his eight month prison sentence so he could have surgery.
Former congressman Michael Grimm asked a judge to push back his eight month prison sentence so he could have surgery.
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DNAinfo/Nicholas Rizzi

STATEN ISLAND — Disgraced former congressman Michael Grimm wants to delay going to prison so he can have surgery.

Grimm's lawyers have filed paperwork asking Judge Pamela Chen to push the start of his eight month sentence from Sep. 10 to Sep. 22 so he could have an operation. They didn't specify the nature of the procedure.

In the document, Grimm's lawyers wrote the earliest available appointment for the procedure is on Sep. 9 — the day before he's scheduled to turn himself in for his eight month sentence — and the procedure requires a brief healing period and a second appointment to have stitches removed.

In July, Grimm was sentenced to prison and a year's probation for his tax fraud conviction for underreporting profits from an Upper East Side eatery he co-owned before he was elected to Congress.

He also agreed to pay back nearly $150,000 in restitution for the unpaid taxes and serve 200 hours of community service.

Thursday's document isn't the first time Grimm appealed to Judge Chen for leniency during the case. Before his sentencing, Grimm asked Chen to allow him to modify his bail and travel to Europe for a "job opportunity," which she later denied deeming him a flight risk.

His lawyers also filed a long document detailing Grimm's "caring life" in an attempt to escape jail time based on his military record and role as a caretaker for his mother, sister and former Borough President Guy Molinari.

In court, Chen ruled he should serve jail time for his crime and chided Grimm several times.

"Your moral compass, Mr. Grimm, needs some reorientation," Chen said during the sentencing. "He was actively perpetrating fraud on a regular or weekly basis."