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Judge lifts freeze on woman’s accounts
YOUNGSTOWN
A visiting probate judge has lifted the freeze on several bank accounts and an individual retirement account of a woman who stole money from an elderly businessman.
Judge Denny Clunk of Mahoning County Probate Court took the action Monday in the case of Carol Spano, whose accounts were under a law-enforcement freeze while the criminal case against her was pending.
In the criminal matter, Spano, 50, of Pinecrest Road, Girard, was sentenced to five years’ probation Thursday by Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court after she pleaded no contest to a felony-level theft charge and made $15,000 in restitution to the Boardman businessman’s estate.
That amount was in addition to $44,000 in restitution she had made earlier.
Spano stole by transferring money from the bank accounts of Fred Hightower to hers between Aug. 1, 2005, and May 5, 2009, while she worked at the Hightower insurance agency, said J. Michael Thompson, an assistant county prosecutor.
Hightower died Dec. 3, 2008.
Last month, Atty. Douglas J. Neuman, who represents the Hightower estate, sought and received from Judge Clunk a temporary restraining order extending the law-enforcement freeze until Monday after Neuman said he believed the frozen accounts contain money belonging to the Hightower estate.
Judge Clunk said the freeze no longer was necessary because Spano is a beneficiary of the Hightower estate, which will receive substantial future commission income, and her share could be docked for whatever additional money she might have improperly obtained.
However, Judge Clunk warned Spano that the jury that will hear a concealment-of-assets complaint against her in a late June probate court trial could look unfavorably at the spending or transfer of money from the unfrozen accounts.
“Those kinds of things could be commented on, and they would not go down well with the jury,” the judge said, warning Spano to be “cautious” with those funds.