Man gets 10-year suspended sentence for stealing son’s benefits

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com 

A former Floyd County resident has been given a 10-year suspended sentence after pleading guilty to stealing government support payments meant for his son, after the boy’s mother died.

Brian Charles Sachen, age 40, was sentenced Monday in Floyd County District Court. He was placed on probation for five years and ordered to pay $10,176 in restitution to the Social Security Administration. A fine of $1,000 plus surcharges was suspended.

Sachen, now a resident of Mason City but who was living in Floyd County at the time, was arrested June 5, 2018, for allegedly stealing more than $10,000 in benefits payments and charged with first-degree theft, a Class C felony.

According to records in Floyd County District Court, Sachen enrolled as the payee representative for his biological son after the boy’s mother died in 2014. The boy was removed from Sachen’s custody in April 2015 by the Iowa Department of Human Services, but Sachen continued to collect the boy’s Social Security survivor’s benefit payments.

Sachen allegedly received $10,176 from June 24, 2015, to Sept. 28, 2016, by failing to notify the Social Security Administration that he no longer had custody of the boy.

A trial had been set to begin last October, but on Oct. 29, Sachen pleaded guilty to the charge of first-degree theft. Sentencing Monday was handed down by District Court Judge Colleen Weiland.