Karen Guillet, the former Oxford tax collector given a four-year prison term for stealing nearly $250,000 from town coffers, has been transferred to a halfway house after serving more than two years in prison.
Guillet, 65, now lives at Johnson/Silliman House, a 26-bed facility in Hartford designed to prepare female offenders for transition back into the community.
She was transferred to the facility Thursday (March 12).
Prior to the move, Guillet had been imprisoned at York Correctional Institution in East Lyme since Nov. 7, 2012.
Case Background
In November 2012, Judge Richard Arnold sentenced Guillet to a 12-year prison term to be suspended after she serves four years behind bars. She’ll be on probation for five years after she is released.
The sentencing marked the culmination of a public corruption scandal that was first alleged in December 2009, when Oxford Town Hall officials began to probe the tax collector’s office.
According to a state police arrest warrant, Guillet was stealing money and cooking the books in Oxford to pay for spa treatments, dog walkers, spending sprees at posh stores —- and weekly deliveries of fresh flowers to her home.
Click here to learn more about the allegations.
She dropped thousands in stores such as Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Lord & Taylor and Williams Sonoma. Her spending habits were widely known among her co-workers in Oxford Town Hall, but Guillet attributed her wealth to a trust fund or her husband’s construction company.
Guillet’s lapping scheme was finally unraveled when Sharon Scinto, then Guillet’s assistant, noticed discrepancies with cash receipts and began asking questions. Guillet was arrested in late 2011.
Transfer
Guillet had applied for parole in the case last year but two members of the state’s Board of Pardons and Paroles took just three minutes of deliberating to deny her application, citing “injury and impact to the victims” and the “nature and circumstances” of her theft.
Her transfer to the halfway house was not made as part of the parole process, but by York Correctional Institution Warden Stephen Faucher.
A Correction Department spokesperson described Guillet’s transfer as routine.
“Generally all inmates that are within 18 months of their end of sentence date are eligible for a halfway house,” the spokesperson, Karen Martucci, said Monday.
Guillet’s “maximum release date” is June 30, 2016, so that puts her within the applicable timeframe, Martucci said.
She did not know whether Guilllet had requested the transfer.
Martuccci said prison officials review what programs inmates have participated in while behind bars and whether they’ve behaved well before determining whether they’re suitable to be placed in a halfway house.
The facilities help offenders transition, while still being supervised, from living behind bars to being productive members of society.
Martucci said in an email Monday afternoon that because Guillet had been transferred so recently, “an appropriate amount of time has not lapsed in order to obtain employment” outside the facility.
“Each offender has outlined conditions of their release which are specific to the needs of the offender. A halfway house provides a structured environment to assist with reentry,” Martucci said. “Karen Guillet has served the majority of her sentence and will continue with that sentence under supervision in the community. She will have access to the community for limited and verifiable reasons.”
The halfway house is run by Community Solutions, Inc., a Windsor-based nonprofit.
Inmates stay at the facility for an average of 120 days, according to the Correction Department’s website.
“Services include room and board, needs assessment and development of individual treatment plans, employment readiness, financial management, GED and housing referrals, cognitive‐behavioral groups, problem solving life skills and individual and group counseling,” a description of the facility’s programs reads.
Reaction
Though Guillet pleaded guilty to first-degree larceny and was ordered to pay $243,902 restitution in the case, Oxford town officials have alleged she stole far more money than that.
In addition to the criminal case, the town sued Guillet in civil court in 2010.
The lawsuit is still pending. A “status conference” in the case is scheduled for April 23.
Guillet’s lawyer, Dominick Thomas, said Monday he hadn’t heard about her transfer, but said he was pleased for Guillet.
The lawsuit against Guillet has been pending for nearly five years. Thomas said there hasn’t been much movement in the case lately, and that he’s waiting on town officials.
“The ball’s in their court to do whatever steps are necessary,” Thomas said.
Oxford First Selectman George Temple said Monday the town is “going for every penny we can get.”
Temple said he hadn’t heard about Guillet’s halfway house assignment, but that it didn’t surprise him.
“She’s not a violent criminal, and in my opinion the havoc she caused in town she couldn’t repay with just a very short time in jail,” Temple said. “If it was up to me I’d keep her in jail until she’s old and gray, but obviously it’s not up to me.”
