photo by: Douglas County GIS map

An aerial photo on file with Douglas County property records, shows 209 N. Fall Creek Road. Records have indicated that the house has been Thomas Fritzel's primary residence. Fritzel has filed paperwork seeking that he be sentenced to house arrest rather than prison for federal fraud convictions.

It has been five weeks since Lawrence developer Thomas Fritzel was sentenced to a year in prison for his scheme to collect fraudulent tax refunds from the City of Lawrence, but it is unclear where his request to serve his sentence at home stands.

Fritzel previously pleaded guilty to one count of criminal conspiracy for scheming to collect fraudulent tax refunds from the city as part of his development of The Oread hotel. At Fritzel’s sentencing hearing on July 15 in U.S. District Court in Topeka, Judge Daniel Crabtree ruled to impose the agreed-upon sentence of 12 months and a day in federal prison and a fine of $25,000 plus interest.

Fritzel has requested to serve his sentence at home because of the COVID-19 pandemic and concerns that he would be susceptible to the disease in prison, but it is unclear what the status of that request is. Crabtree declined at sentencing to issue a recommendation regarding that request, saying that is a decision that he believes is up to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

The Journal-World has contacted the BOP multiple times over the past month to ask about the status of Fritzel’s home confinement request and to find out when and where Fritzel will be ordered to serve his sentence, but has not been given any particulars about his status. As the Journal-World has reported, if Fritzel is not allowed to serve his sentence in his multimillion-dollar home, he has requested to serve his sentence at the minimum-security federal prison camp in Yankton, S.D. A 2009 Forbes article included it on its list of the country’s “10 Cushiest Prisons.”

The BOP database now indicates that Fritzel has a register number in the database, but it states he is not in BOP custody. Federal BOP spokesman Scott Taylor confirmed in an email to the Journal-World that Fritzel is indeed not in BOP custody. When asked how long it typically takes between sentencing and when individuals must report to a prison to serve their sentence, Taylor said that it varies. He did not provide any additional details or specifics regarding Fritzel’s case.

Taylor said that per Bureau of Prisons policy, that specific designation information, including location and timing, is not releasable until after an individual arrives at his or her destination. Taylor did not answer questions regarding the status of Fritzel’s request for home confinement or whether that request was still under review.

The criminal conspiracy case is one of two felony cases brought against Fritzel. In the other case, Fritzel was found guilty of three felonies related to illegal disposal of asbestos during a construction project at the former Alvamar Country Club, now known as the Jayhawk Club. Crabtree also ruled during the July sentencing hearing that Fritzel could serve his three-month sentence in that case concurrently with his sentence for criminal conspiracy, meaning Fritzel will serve a total of approximately 12 months in prison for both cases instead of 15 months.