WESTFIELD – A city man, sent to jail in 2012 for stealing from an elderly relative he had been caring for, has been sent back to jail after again victimizing his great-aunt.
He also waived any interest in the victim’s estate.
Eric J. Lamire, 43, formerly of 41 Noble Ave., had been sentenced to two concurrent 18-month terms in June, 2012, when he pleaded guilty to charges of permitting abuse of an elderly person and larceny of property valued more than $250.
Those charges stemmed from an incident on March 21, 2012, in which Lemire turned off the power in his great-aunt’s home, unplugged the telephone and stole her strong box, knowing that it contained the bulk of the funds she had received when he helped her redeem a certificate of deposit valued at more than $14,000.
The woman, who could only walk with the help of a walker, had been lying in a reclining chair when the lights went out and stayed there until daylight when she struggled to a neighbor’s house to seek assistance.
Lemire was released from jail without restrictions regarding contact with his great-aunt and, by August, 2013, was apparently again living in her house – and cashing checks he induced her to sign – according to the investigating detective, Roxanne Bradley, who reported Lemire used her money “to support his alcohol and crack addiction.”
At his arraignment at the end of February, Assistant District Attorney Mary Partyka told Judge Rita Koenigs that the 89-year victim had told investigators from the protective services agency that “the defendant begged her to sign the checks so she signed her name because the defendant begged her to.”
The woman told the investigator that she did not know how much the checks were written for and the investigator quoted her as saying “I told him he could get in trouble for taking other people’s money. I tried to warn him,” Partyka said.
Bradley reports that Lemire “filled the blank checks out in his name and wrote in the amounts for each check.”
She wrote in a court document that, when Lemire was interviewed, “He admitted that he cashed the checks to support his alcohol and crack addiction”
Partyka said that twelve checks totaling $6,100 were cashed during a two month period and detectives established that Lemire was recorded on bank video records cashing the checks.
On Tuesday, Lemire appeared in Westfield District Court before Judge Philip A. Contant and pleaded guilty to a charge of larceny of property valued more than $250 from a person more than 60 years-of-age or disabled and 11 charges of uttering a false check. A charge of larceny from a building was not prosecuted.
He was sentenced to 12 concurrent 18-month terms in the house of correction with credit for time served awaiting trial since Feb. 28, 2014.
