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Girard woman gets 5 years’ probation in theft case
YOUNGSTOWN
A 50-year-old Girard woman has been sentenced to five years’ probation, including 100 hours of community service, for stealing money from an elderly businessman, but her legal troubles are not over.
Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court imposed the sentence Thursday in a criminal case, in which Carol Spano had pleaded no contest in January to a reduced theft charge and agreed to make $15,000 in restitution to the businessman’s estate.
On March 10, Judge Krichbaum ordered Key Bank to forfeit $15,000 from one of Spano’s accounts to the estate of Fred D. Hightower, a Boardman insurance agent who died Dec. 3, 2008.
J. Michael Thompson, an assistant county prosecutor, confirmed that the bank had issued a check in that amount to the Hightower estate.
During her probation, Spano can’t leave Ohio without Judge Krichbaum’s permission.
The judge gave her permission to attend a family wedding in Florida in May but denied her permission to attend the Master’s golf tournament in Augusta, Ga., April 5-8, using tickets she received as a 50th birthday present, saying the Master’s trip would be purely pleasure travel.
Meanwhile, in county probate court, where the Hightower estate case and a concealment-of-assets complaint against Spano are still pending, visiting Judge Denny Clunk issued a temporary restraining order March 14, extending through Monday a law-enforcement freeze on several other bank accounts and an individual retirement account in Spano’s name.
Judge Clunk has scheduled a 10 a.m. Monday hearing on whether to issue a preliminary injunction to continue the freeze on those accounts.
Hightower’s son, Kevin, told Boardman police that, after examining his father’s records, he believed Spano stole more than $300,000 of his father’s money while she worked at the Hightower Agency Ltd.
In the criminal case, Spano, of Pinecrest Road, was indicted last June on an aggravated-theft charge, under which she had faced three to 10 years in prison.
The indictment accused her of stealing more than $100,000 between Aug. 1, 2005, and May 5, 2009, which is consistent with an accountant’s finding that she fraudulently took $117,133 from Fred Hightower.
Thompson said Spano committed the crime by transferring money from Hightower’s bank accounts to hers.
The assistant prosecutor said he made the plea deal because Fred Hightower was no longer available as a prosecution witness.
Thompson said Spano had earlier made an additional $44,000 in restitution to Hightower’s estate when she first knew she was being investigated, but before she was indicted.
Spano told the judge she had worked 30 years for Fred Hightower, helped his business expand, paid his bills and took him to medical appointments.
“The only thing I tried to do was help him,” Spano said, adding that she should have kept better records. “This has been the worst time of my life, and you’ll never see me here again.”
Judge Krichbaum then warned her that, if she came back before him, and he finds she violated terms of her probation, he would put her in prison. “You can pretty well count on a five-year sentence if you violate probation,” he added.