Sunday, April 23, 2006
Cases against town clerks cause mistrust
By COLIN HICKEY
Staff Writer
At the town office in Madison, the numbers were off by $255,000, while in Manchester the discrepancy found in the town accounts came to $212,000.
In the Madison case, former Town Clerk Lisa Paine pleaded guilty in 1997 to embezzling the money between 1990 to 1996.
The Manchester case has yet to be resolved, although Patsy Rollins, the town’s former tax collector, treasurer and town clerk, faces 31 charges of aggravated forgery.
These are two of the most blatant examples of financial irregularities in town offices in central Maine, but they are hardly the only ones.
Last summer, the former town clerk and treasurer in Industry pleaded guilty to stealing $25,000 in public money, and earlier this month, a Franklin County grand jury indicted the former town clerk in New Sharon for allegedly stealing more than $4,600 from the municipality.
Paine pleaded guilty to one count of theft by embezzlement, which is punishable by a maximum of 10 years in prison under Maine criminal statutes.
The judge imposed an eight-year prison sentence, with all but 30 months suspended and she will be on probation for four years.
In Industry, Cathy Frazier, 34, of Industry pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of theft by unauthorized taking, a misdemeanor, which took into consideration the fact the money was repaid. She was sentenced to 180 days, all suspended, with one year probation. She was also ordered to repay the town $3,000 for an in-depth audit it had done to determine the exact amount of money stolen, according to Assistant Franklin County District Attorney Andrew Robinson.
An offense involving such a substantial amount of money would normally be a felony charge but through negotiations with her attorney, Kevin Joyce, prosecutors agreed to reduce it to a misdemeanor. The charge carries a maximum sentence of 364 days in jail with a $2,000 fine.
Ellen Grant, 58, who lives on Smith Road in New Sharon, was indicted for felony theft for allegedly taking money from the town between Jan. 1, 2002, and March 5, 2005.
She was town clerk for 12 years and did not run for re-election at the March 2005 annual town meeting.
Although the exact amount taken during the years is believed to be as much as $25,000, most has been repaid to the town and, in the end, about $4,600 remains unaccounted for, prosecutors said.