 From the U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of New York: 
 
 ALBANY, NEW YORK – John W. Caltabiano, Jr., age 49, of Catskill, New York, was sentenced today to serve 57 months in prison after a jury found him guilty in October of fraudulently obtaining federal and state disability benefits. The announcement was made by United States Attorney Richard S. Hartunian and Edward J. Ryan, Special Agent in Charge for the Social Security Administration ("SSA") Office of the Inspector General. Between April 2008 and October 2010, Caltabiano and McCarten conspired to steal Social Security Disability and Workers’ Compensation benefits by falsely representing to the SSA, the New York State Workers’ Compensation Board, and Travelers Insurance that an on-the-job injury had left him almost completely blind. At the sentencing, Judge D’Agostino said, "And had he not been caught, I have no doubt that Mr. Caltabiano would still have someone leading him into any proceedings or any hearings as though he couldn’t see a darn thing when we all know that he was seeing well enough to carry out his ordinary activities, to drive, to go to convenience stores, all of that." (ABC Nightline) 
 
 "If Caltabiano had not been stopped, he would have been able to steal more than a half a million dollars based on his life expectancy," U.S. Attorney Richard S. Hartunian said after the pair's sentencing. We continue to investigate allegations of fraudulent disability claims to combat fraud in federal and state government sponsored disability programs. Caltabiano, who was previously convicted of sexual assault charges for attempting to abduct teenage girls, was slapped with a five-year sentence for disability and mail fraud in February.
– John Caltabiano was collecting disability benefits for a 2006 workplace accident that he said left him blind when investigators caught him on video reading, driving, and holding a door open for someone, ABC News reports. The 49-year-old New York man had said in his benefits application that he couldn't do basic things like cook for himself, exercise, shave, or get around the house. "I sit in the dark and listen to TV," he wrote. But based on a tip, US Attorney Richard Hartunian and investigators at the Social Security Administration gave Caltabiano a closer look. He had indeed lost sight in one eye in a workplace accident, they found, but video evidence showed he wasn't homebound. Aired Friday on Nightline, the evidence helped authorities in October convict Caltabiano and girlfriend Colleen J. McCarten, 43, of fraud and theft in faking an on-the-job-injury, the New York Daily News reports. Hartunian says the New York man was on track to steal half-a-million dollars over the course of his life. In April, Caltabiano was sentenced to 57 months and McCarten to three years' probation, per a press release; his lawyer says he plans to appeal. As for his attempted fraud, it's not all that unusual. "It costs the county a lot of money—a lot of money," Albany County Sheriff Craig Apple tells ABC News 10. "And then if you start thinking about having to hire all these investigators to investigate it—paying their salary and benefits—people wonder why their taxes are so high. Well, here you go.”