A Superior Court judge Monday agreed to attach $150,000 of former tax collector Karen Guillet’s assets if the town wins a civil case it has filed against her.
The town is suing Guillet, claiming she took more than $600,000 from the town’s tax collection coffers.
The attachment means that if the town prevails in its lawsuit, it can collect at least $150,000 from Guillet’s home.
“It’s a bookmark,” Oxford Town Counsel Fran Teodosio said in Milford court Monday. “If the town wins its case, the opportunity is there to utilize that asset as a way of getting dollars.”
A hearing had been scheduled for Monday to receive testimony from town officials who were part of an internal investigation into Guillet’s practices.
After a lengthy closed-door meeting in the judge’s chambers, the attorneys for both sides agreed to the attachment and continued the hearing until March 18.
Guillet was not present but was represented in court by prominent Valley attorney Dominick Thomas and Edward Giacci of Shelton.
Thomas declined to comment on the case itself but said in the next few weeks the attorneys will be reviewing documents collected by Oxford connected to the case.
He also said the attachment does not mean Guillet admits fault in the case.
“Whatever attachment, whether it’s a dollar, or $10,000 or $150,000, is an attachment on somebody’s property. Period,” Thomas said. “So our point was, let’s do discovery before we go through an extensive hearing on it. The town has its issues. We recognize those and they recognize that we need to do discovery.”
Thomas said discovery means looking at whatever documents the town has to support its case.
Teodosio said the documents include paperwork from the tax collector’s office and from the town’s bank.
Also present in the courtroom were First Selectwoman Mary Ann Drayton-Rogers, Oxford Finance Director Jim Hliva and town Administrative Assistant Joseph Calabrese.
Calabrese was a member of an ad hoc committee that looked into the tax collector’s office. Click here to read every story the Valley Indy has published about this issue.
The three had expected to present testimony in the case to support the town’s request for an attachment of Guillet’s property. Each carried a stack of paperwork, including what appeared to be photo copies of checks.
The town has been investigating missing money from the tax collector’s office since December 2009. Guillet was placed on sick leave in January. She later resigned.
The civil case is separate from the criminal complaint from the town now under review by state police.
State police continue to investigate any potential criminal wrongdoing in the case, but have not filed and charges against Guillet.
Civil cases have a different burden of proof than criminal cases.
While criminal cases must reach beyond a reasonable doubt, the burden of proof in civil cases is the preponderance of the evidence.
A copy of the town’s complaint is posted below.
