In court Friday, former WFAN morning show host Craig Carton blamed his gambling addiction on memories he was having coping with being sexually abused at age 11. The judge, a listener to the Boomer & Carton show, was having none of it. She likened Carton to Bernie Madoff before sentencing him to 3.5 years in prison. “Craig Carton, you have indeed descended into a hell of your own making.”
Carton said memories of his abuse were set off by revelations of the crimes of former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky. Nobody knows what it’s like when the lights go out and you lay in bed awake and the demons come.” Carton says he’s been in Gamblers Anonymous and he’s undergoing therapy. He resigned from his position after the arrest and his wife separated from him.
For running a Ponzi scheme, Carton received a 3 1/2-year sentence. Prosecuters were asking for 5-7 years for the nearly $7 million ticket resale scam he ran in an attempt to pay off gambling debts. Carton was also ordered to complete 150 hours of community service and pay $4.8 million in restitution.
On friday, on the WFAN Morning Show, Boomer and Gio spoke about the sentence, which had not happened yet. LISTEN TO THAT CONVERSATION HERE.
Admitting he was driven to a life of crime by “demons,” Carton, 50, pleaded for no prison time at his sentencing at federal court in Manhattan. But U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon was unmoved, saying, “If it sounds a little bit like what a guy named Madoff did, that’s because it is.”
The New Yorker has a detailed piece on the history of this case and the history of how Craig Carton became a star on WFAN.
