The state’s attorney general filed a civil lawsuit today seeking to revoke or reduce former Oxford tax collector Karen Guillet’s pension.
Guillet is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 29 in Superior Court in Milford after pleading guilty in July to first-degree larceny, a felony.
Connecticut law allows a public official’s pension to be revoked or reduced if the public official is convicted of a crime connected to his or her public office.
Guillet stands to collect a pension of $1,814.33 per month, which works out to $21,771.96 annually, according to a spokesperson for the attorney general’s office.
Guillet has admitted stealing $243,902 from taxpayers.
According to a civil complaint filed in the Hartford Judicial District by state Attorney General George Jepsen, the state wants the court to revoke or reduce Guillet’s publicly-funded pension due to the fact she admitted stealing from taxpayers.
Jepsen’s lawsuit is separate from the criminal proceeding
Guillet faces a maximum prison sentence of 12 years in prison in connection to the theft, which will be suspended after she serves five years.
Her attorney, Dominick Thomas of Derby, is expected to argue for a lesser sentence.
The Town of Oxford also has a civil lawsuit pending against Guillet and her husband recently filed for divorce.
Guillet was the Oxford tax collector from December 1984 until January 2010, according to Jepsen’s lawsuit.
A state police arrest warrant said Guillet stole money from taxpayers to live a lavish lifestyle of shopping sprees, beauty treatments and casino trips.
The law the attorney general is using to go after Guillet’s pension was created in 2008, according to CT News Junkie. It was created in the wake of a corruption scandal that saw Gov. John Rowland resign his position.
