Oxford can’t touch Karen Guillet’s retirement accounts.
That’s what a Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday, after Oxford tried to attach $160,298 in her town-held retirement plans to its civil case against Guillet, the former tax collector.
Oxford is trying to recoup money it claims Guillet stole from the town’s tax collection coffers. Oxford filed a lawsuit against Guillet in December, claiming she took more than $670,000 over the past six years.
The civil case is in its early stages, and Judge Arthur Hiller this month agreed to attach $670,000 in Guillet’s assets as the case makes its way through Superior Court in Milford.
But those assets can’t include the $160,298 in her retirement accounts, or money in her Connecticut Municipal Employees Retirement pension account, the judge ruled Tuesday.
“On behalf of the taxpayers, I’m disappointed,” said Town Counsel Fran Teodosio. “But if it’s the law, it’s the law.”
Withdrawals
Teodosio, in a legal brief written in support of the request, said Guillet withdrew $13,935 from one of the accounts in May 2010.
She later requested to withdraw more, Teodosio wrote, but the town refused to let her take any more money out.
Guillet needed the money to pay her attorney’s fees, Teodosio wrote in the brief.
Guillet’s attorney, Dominick Thomas, argued that the town can’t attach Guillet’s retirement accounts because they are protected under state and federal laws.
The law prohibit creditors from attaching retirement accounts, Thomas wrote.
The judge agreed that Guillet’s plans were exempt and will remain unattached to the case.
Disbursements
Teodosio said the ruling doesn’t prevent the town from denying Guillet a withdrawal from the retirement account. He is looking into whether Oxford has any legal standing to hold onto the funds in the account.
“To bar us from attaching is not an order for us to distribute,” Teodosio said. “It’s a separate issue.”
The Case
Guillet has not been charged with any crime. State police continue to investigate the town’s claims about missing money.
The town claims Guillet was systematically floating tax payments, and skimming the cash that came into the office. Checks and cash for tax payments would come into Guillet’s office — but wouldn’t necessarily get applied toward the account of the person who paid, in an elaborate scheme to hide missing cash, officials have said in court.
It was like a tax collection Ponzi scheme, officials said.
The town found out about the missing money when a town employee brought a suspicious deposit ticket and check to First Selectwoman Mary Ann Drayton-Rogers in December 2009.
The state police have been investigating ever since, and the town filed its lawsuit a year later.
The civil case is in the “discovery” phase, Teodosio said. After the town presented its findings at a hearing this month, Guillet’s lawyers will spend time researching the documents and doing its own investigation.
No hearing has been scheduled in the case, and Teodosio said it could be some time before the two sides are back in court.
