By DAN CROWLEY
Daily Hampshire Gazette
NORTHAMPTON — A Hampshire Superior Court jury began deliberating late Tuesday afternoon in the corporate larceny trial of Lori A. Towne, who prosecutors allege stole more than $200,000 over eight years from her former employer, SealRyt Corp.
The case was put in the jury’s hands after hearing Towne’s continued testimony earlier in the day and closing statements by lawyers. The jury also heard testimony from accountant Richard MacKenzie Jr., an expert witness who examined SealRyt’s financial records and was called to the stand by Towne’s defense team.
MacKenzie was one of three accountants to take the stand in the weeklong trial, which has involved more than 100 exhibits, including reams of SealRyt’s financial records, tax returns and correspondence.
Towne, 51, of Easthampton and formerly of Westhampton, faces six counts each of larceny over $250 by a single scheme, check forgery, and uttering false checks. Prosecutors allege that, between 2002 and 2010, she stole more than $200,000 from SealRyt using company checks and altering the company’s books to pay three personal credit card accounts, including two in her husband’s name, personal car insurance and phone bills, as well as herself.
SealRyt Corp. develops, patents and manufactures alternative sealing devices in the fluid and gas-sealing industry. The company operated in the mill district at 150 Pleasant St. in Easthampton before relocating to Westfield in 2011.
SealRyt president Mark Wilkinson of Huntington told jurors last week that Towne walked into his office in tears in 2010, shortly before the Internal Revenue Service was to audit his company, and admitted to stealing money from him in 2007 and 2008. He said he had her sign a confession in his office, and an independent accountant he later hired turned up other financial improprieties on the company’s books, according to testimony.
Wilkinson said he kept Towne employed during the IRS audit and for seven months after her alleged confession before ending her employment in May 2011.
Towne gave jurors a very different account on Monday. She said Wilkinson had given her permission to use company money to pay personal bills for her and her family, and instructed her to alter the company’s books so that expense payments and amounts were sometimes changed, and charged to different vendors in the company’s accounting system.
She denied stealing any money and testified that she never read the confession she was asked to sign, as it came during a hectic time in preparing for the IRS audit.
In his closing statement, defense lawyer Alan Rubin of the Committee for Public Counsel Services told jurors that Wilkinson needed a “scapegoat” and “someone to take the fall” should the IRS find financial improprieties at the company — and that was Towne.
The IRS audit “was the start of the chain of events that brings us all here this week,” Rubin said. “The evidence shows that Mr. Wilkinson was playing a double game. Mr. Wilkinson tricked Lori Towne into signing a document.”
He told jurors that Wilkinson was not as distanced from the financial affairs of SealRyt as he suggested to the jury during testimony, and that “signing things without reading them was not uncommon at SealRyt.”
While testifying last week, Wilkinson was presented with more 200 company checks paid to what prosecutors allege were Towne’s personal accounts. In each case, Wilkinson said he did not authorize use of the checks, the vast majority of which carried his stamped signature and Towne’s handwritten signature.
Addressing jurors Tuesday, Rubin described a note in a care package that Wilkinson had written to Towne while she was in New Hampshire mourning the loss of a family member as “a smoking gun” in the case. The package included a $500 check for Towne and a note that read: “It’s the same old ruse. We’ll just garner receipts for a while.”
“It’s an example, in fact, of how things were done at SealRyt,” Rubin said.
In her closing remarks, Assistant Northwestern District Attorney Jayme Parent reminded jurors that Towne stated in writing on two occasions that she stole money from the company, and in one case indicated she was making plans to pay it back.
Parent said Towne’s story that she did not know what else to do given the circumstances was “just not believable” — and noted that the amount of money in company checks that Towne wrote for her personal bills exceeded her regular salary.
“Ms. Towne wants you to believe that she was so scared and upset that she didn’t know what to do,” Parent said. “But she put in writing on two occasions that she stole money from the company.”
“She stole from him,” Parent said referring to Wilkinson. “She stole from the company.”
Jurors are expected to resume deliberations on Wednesday.
Dan Crowley can be reached at [email protected].
