October 27, 2004 -- SUPERMODEL Maggie Rizer's stepfather could get up to 800 years in jail after pleading guilty to ripping her off for $7 million.
As we first reported last year, Rizer's stepdad, John Breen, gambled away the covergirl's cash after she ill-advisedly put him in charge of her finances. However, the full extent of his spree was unknown until Breen pled guilty last Friday.
Breen copped to felony counts of first, second- and third-degree grand larceny, first-degree scheming to defraud and two counts of criminal possession of a forged instrument. He will be sentenced on Jan. 3 in the family's upstate hometown, Watertown.
Beginning in May 1998, Breen mostly gambled away his stepdaughter's earnings. In a plea for leniency, his lawyer, James R. McGraw, declared Breen has "been through several treatment programs," had "a severe alcohol problem" and "suffered from depression [and] an addiction to gambling."
Breen has agreed to pay restitution up to $7 million, but McGraw notes he doesn't have the dough. Rizer's lawyer, Ed Hayes, has speculated that he might have plenty of cash stashed away.
Rizer, who modeled for Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger among others, put on weight during her travails and dropped out of the scene for a while but is now poised for a comeback. Her biological father died of AIDS when she was 14; Breen later married her mother, Maureen.
"If there is one thing I hate it's an Irish guy who betrays his family and then whines it's because he's a drunk," Hayes (who's also Irish-American) told PAGE SIX's Jared Paul Stern. "He was drunk for four years? He never realized stealing millions was a crime in this world and the next?"
Hayes declares, "I just hope we can get some of the money back for this lovely, hard-working, young woman. It is much to her credit that she has been in the gym every day and has put her career back together."
Meanwhile, Hayes is battling with the mayor of Watertown, Jeffrey E. Graham. Hayes notes Breen gambled away most of the money playing Quick Draw at the Speak Easy tavern, which is owned by Graham.
"It makes me very uncomfortable that [Breen] allegedly washed all of this money through the mayor's bar and that's not being investigated," Hayes told the Watertown Daily Times. Graham says that's "slander."
As we first reported last year, Rizer's stepdad, John Breen, gambled away the covergirl's cash after she ill-advisedly put him in charge of her finances. However, the full extent of his spree was unknown until Breen pled guilty last Friday.
Breen copped to felony counts of first, second- and third-degree grand larceny, first-degree scheming to defraud and two counts of criminal possession of a forged instrument. He will be sentenced on Jan. 3 in the family's upstate hometown, Watertown.
Beginning in May 1998, Breen mostly gambled away his stepdaughter's earnings. In a plea for leniency, his lawyer, James R. McGraw, declared Breen has "been through several treatment programs," had "a severe alcohol problem" and "suffered from depression [and] an addiction to gambling."
Breen has agreed to pay restitution up to $7 million, but McGraw notes he doesn't have the dough. Rizer's lawyer, Ed Hayes, has speculated that he might have plenty of cash stashed away.
Rizer, who modeled for Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger among others, put on weight during her travails and dropped out of the scene for a while but is now poised for a comeback. Her biological father died of AIDS when she was 14; Breen later married her mother, Maureen.
"If there is one thing I hate it's an Irish guy who betrays his family and then whines it's because he's a drunk," Hayes (who's also Irish-American) told PAGE SIX's Jared Paul Stern. "He was drunk for four years? He never realized stealing millions was a crime in this world and the next?"
Hayes declares, "I just hope we can get some of the money back for this lovely, hard-working, young woman. It is much to her credit that she has been in the gym every day and has put her career back together."
Meanwhile, Hayes is battling with the mayor of Watertown, Jeffrey E. Graham. Hayes notes Breen gambled away most of the money playing Quick Draw at the Speak Easy tavern, which is owned by Graham.
"It makes me very uncomfortable that [Breen] allegedly washed all of this money through the mayor's bar and that's not being investigated," Hayes told the Watertown Daily Times. Graham says that's "slander."
It's still A LOT though! 
