Former Yale Researcher Ordered To Play Piano For Three Years As Punishment For Stealing Government Funds

A New York judge threw the song book at a once prominent Yale researcher, ordering him to play piano for the elderly for three years as punishment for stealing government research funds.

U.S. District Court Judge Analisa Torres in New York handed down the unusual sentence Wednesday, drawing on a filing from Dr. Alexander Neumeister’s defense lawyers that said he was once an obsessive pianist.

Torres said Neumeister, of Hamden, must play piano for at least an hour, twice a week at facilities for the elderly in Hartford, New Haven, Waterbury and Bridgeport for the next three years. It was not immediately clear Thursday what facilities Neumeister would play the piano in and when he would do it.

Neumeister admitted in June to stealing roughly $87,000 while working for New York University, according to court records.

Leading up to his sentencing, his defense lawyers wrote to the judge: “He was especially gifted in music, studied piano at the University of Vienna at age 6 to 15, and his parents strongly encouraged the development of his talent on the piano. From a young age, he practiced obsessively, often for five or six hours a day.”

Neumeister, prominent in the field of neurological research, took a different focus later in life after his father died of a brain aneurysm, his defense said. Ultimately, his research that garnered acclaim was in post-traumatic stress disorder.

Court records show that Neumeister had been required to repay $76,000 for similar conduct while he worked at Yale University. The charges against Neumeister were not related to what transpired at Yale, records show. He left the university in 2010.

Authorities said that while at New York University he made purchases with a corporate purchasing card provided for research costs, including trips for family and a friend, but later classified the purchases as work-related expenses, records show.

Some of his expenses include travel and hotel costs for a friend in Miami, totaling $4,300, and hotel expenses at a resort in Hawaii of about $1,700, records show. The trip to Hawaii was classified as a “DOD retreat,” the complaint read.

The school then paid for the expenses with a federal grant from the National Institute of Mental Health, which was funding Neumeister’s research, or through university funds, records show.

While working at Yale, the university discovered his misappropriation of funds, which he repaid as part of separation from the university, court records show. His defense said he disclosed this to federal prosecutors.

Neumeister’s defense attorney said that this arrest and conviction has effectively ended his scientific career but he does some infrequent consulting for a biotech company and a pharmaceutical company, records show.

In his plea for leniency from the judge, Neumeister’s defense has said he has spent the 10 months since his arrest working to understand what motivated his actions. They noted he has been attending therapy in New Haven.

Neumeister told Torres he was committed to regaining “the integrity I have lost.”

“I cannot help others if I do not help myself,” he told the judge.

An Associated Press report is included in this story.