Summary: An Ellington woman convicted in 2008 for stealing $1.7 million from her law firm has been arrested recently for stealing $40,000 from the salon where she recently worked.
It may have been brazen for Ellington woman Patricia Baddeley Meehan to steal $1.7 million form the South Windsor law firm where, as a paralegal, she was perhaps given too much trust. How disconcerting, then, are her actions subsequent to this initial arrest. Not only was she charged with stealing from Jeri James and White House Black Market, two department stores that employed her before she was sentenced for her theft, Feb. 11 2010, but now that she has completed her 40 month sentence for stealing from the firm, Berman & Russo, she has been charged once again, and this time for stealing as much as $40,000 from The Image Company Hair Salon, where she worked from Sept. 2013 until Sept. 29 2014.
To explain a behavior that appears like some sort of compulsion, it seems it really was some sort of compulsion. As for the respective $11,000 and $30,000 she stole from the clothing stores, the charges have been pending due to the diversionary program instated because she argued her crimes were inspired by mental illness.
The nature of the situation became clear to The Image Company Hair Salon after they installed cameras and witnessed her stealing a total of $2,400 – about $200 daily. The stylists there also noticed that their tips doubled after she was terminated, suggesting she was stealing from them as well.
At Berman & Russo of South Windsor she had stolen money from the client fund account in order to pay cash advances at casinos she frequented.
In response to the latest revelation, the government is asking for Meehan’s prison release to be revoked. In regards to this, she is due to appear in a U.S. District Court in Bridgeport today to explain, if she can, why she should not return to prison.
News Source: Courant