[nfbmi-talk] ripped off more than once

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Rip-off of blind newsstand owner stings - Times Union

Rip-off of blind newsstand owner stings

 

CATHY WOODRUFF, The Advocate

 

Published 08:45 p.m., Wednesday, December 21, 2011

 

Rose LaRosa speaks about the failure of a criminal to continue paying restitution for his theft from her late husband, who ran a newsstand in the Empire

State Plaza, on Tuesday Dec. 20, 2011 in Colonie, N.Y. (Philip Kamrass / Times Union) Photo: Philip Kamrass / 00015831A

Rose LaRosa speaks about the failure of a criminal to continue paying restitution for his theft from her late husband, who ran a newsstand in the Empire

State Plaza, on Tuesday Dec. 20, 2011 in Colonie, N.Y. (Philip Kamrass / Times Union)

blind-newsstand-owner-stings-2418761

 

When bookkeeper

William B. Plante

admitted stealing $126,000 from three blind merchants who ran newsstands at state government buildings in Albany, his sentence from County Judge

Thomas Breslin

included both a prison term and an order to pay restitution to his victims.

 

Plante served a little over a year at the

Hudson Correctional Facility

in Columbia County.

 

But the restitution? Well, Plante stopped paying that some time ago, according to Albany County probation officials, who formally notified the court of

the lapse in March 2010.

 

The resulting hardship to at least one of his victims is both alarming and outrageous.

 

Rose LaRosa, the widow of victim

Ralph LaRosa,

has received little of the $98,000 Plante admitted taking from her husband's business, Ralph's News, in the Empire State Plaza.

 

Ralph LaRosa died in September 2005, just two days after Plante pleaded guilty.

 

"He still owes me $91,000," said Rose LaRosa, who is also blind, when we talked at her kitchen table. "It's been tough. I'm just barely making it. I've

gone through all my life savings."

 

LaRosa, 56, was laid off in 2010 from her job in the sewing and manufacturing operation of the Northeastern Association for the Blind of Albany, where she

helped to make collar tabs for military uniforms, safety vests for outdoor workers and other products.

 

She paid off the mortgage on her Colonie home, which she shares with an adult son, with her share of the proceeds from the sale of her late parents house

in Queens a few years ago.

 

But later, she took out a large home equity loan to make repairs and improvements to the house. She's been unable to keep up with the payments and fears

a foreclosure by the bank.

 

It's a sad state of affairs — especially in view of the importance Albany County District Attorney

P. David Soares

gave to the restitution order in December 2005, when Plante was sentenced.

 

"Throughout our prosecution of this case, our number one concern has been to recover the money stolen from these victims," Soares said in a written statement.

"With this plea agreement, the victims will be made whole and the perpetrator will go off to jail."

 

I was unable to reach Plante, who was paroled in January 2007, to ask if he will resume the restitution payments voluntarily. Rose LaRosa believes the payments

stopped sometime in 2008.

 

Plante's current financial situation is not clear, but I do believe he should be required to resume paying at whatever pace he can afford.

 

I also think authorities should have been more actively monitoring his compliance, and I hope that Soares now will initiate efforts to enforce Breslin's

restitution order.

 

Soares was not available for comment this week.

 

Public records show Plante and his wife filed for personal bankruptcy in May 2007. At that time, they reported debts of $514,000 and assets of $285,320,

including a Niskayuna home valued at $275,000, which they planned to surrender. The house was sold the following year by Deutsche Bank for $170,000.

 

Among the liabilities in Plante's bankruptcy filing was $132,517 owed to the Albany County Probation Department, which was the agency assigned to collect

his court-ordered restitution to the newsstand operators.

 

And even though the bankruptcy case was "discharged" in September 2007, relieving Plante of responsibility for some of the debts, criminal restitution is

not a debt that can be discharged through a bankruptcy.

 

Plante still owes the money, and it now is probably up to Soares to press for enforcement by seeking a warrant and/or initiating a civil action on behalf

of the victims.

 

If Soares can't do it, I appeal to someone in the legal system to take on this challenge.

 

Oddly, legal experts tell me it takes more work to make Plante pay the restitution because he served a state prison sentence.

 

If he'd been sentenced only to local probation or local jail time and probation, authorities would have had the power to revoke his probation for non-compliance.

Payment of restitution can be required by parole authorities as a condition of continued release from prison, but I'm told that it rarely is.

 

As a side note in this investigation, I also contacted Key Bank, which holds Rose LaRosa's home equity loan, to make bank officials aware of the circumstances

she is facing.

 

I'm pleased to report that I heard back from Jeff Stone, Capital Region president of Key Bank, who said the bank wants to work with LaRosa to craft a resolution

that, hopefully, will avert a foreclosure.

 

"Our folks have reached out to the client, and we are working to resolve this in a positive manner," Stone said. "Because your call informed me, I am able

to get the right people involved. We've got people to ask the right questions to make sure we know the full situation."

 

Finally, I recommend that LaRosa connect with a community agency that could help her get a better handle on her financial affairs and act as a knowledgeable

advocate on her behalf.

 

The LaRosas moved to the Capital Region in the early 1980s so Ralph could operate one of the local newsstands licensed by the state

Commission for the Blind

and Visually Handicapped business enterprise program.

 

Ralph LaRosa always managed their financial affairs, and Rose LaRosa now has difficulty tracking household finances because, though she reads Braille, she

cannot see print.

 

The Commission for the Blind and Visually Handicapped has an "independent living services program." Other area agencies, including the

Independent Living Center

of the Hudson Valley in Troy and the

Northeastern Association of the Blind

in Albany, also have programs that might be able to help LaRosa develop a better system for handling and monitoring her finances.

 

Reach the Advocate at

advocate at timesunion.com.

http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Rip-off-of-blind-newsstand-owner-stings-2418761.php