By Jim Pattenjpatten@eagletribune.com
LAWRENCE — A
former city police officer who won awards for heroism but was fired for
misconduct nearly 14 years ago, was arrested yesterday and charged with three
counts of larceny for allegedly trying to pass worthless checks.
David
Padellaro, 48, now of Seabrook, N.H., was arrested on warrants following an
investigation by Detective Paul MacMillan.
Western Oil of
Lincoln, R.I., the company that says it received three bad checks totaling
about $6,700 from Padellaro, would be at least the third contractor allegedly
stiffed at the former Merrimac Paper mill since Padellero bought it for $1 two
years ago in a deal city officials said was crafted to allow its former owner
to dodge a $4 million bill for back property taxes. The city has condemned much
of the dilapidated mill as a threat to public safety and ordered extensive
demolition, but the work has been stalled by the site's complicated
environmental issues and Padellaro's disputes with contractors.
On April 11,
Jason Dellefemine, an account executive with Western Oil, told police the company
was hired by Padellaro to pump oil from three tanks at the former mill on South
Canal Street.
Dellefemine
said the bad checks were drawn in Padellaro's name at Salem Cooperative Bank.
Bank officials told Det. MacMillan the account had a zero balance on Jan. 17
and Jan. 19, and said they closed it when checks started bouncing.
The checks
Padellaro wrote to Western Oil were for $3,478.26, $1,080, and $2,146.88,
police said. Dellefemine told police Padellaro was also delinquent paying
$1,937 for other services performed by the company.
Lawrence tax
officials placed a lien on the mill property last year after former owner
Stephen Stapinski sold it to Padellaro, allowing him to shed the outstanding
tax bill. In July, the owner of a Walpole asbestos abatement company who quit
the demolition job after Padellaro allegedly stopped paying him said he also
was placing a lien on the property to collect on a $20,000 bill. Franklin Crane
Contracting, a demolition contractor based in Hanson, also left the Merrimac Paper
site last year, but a spokesman would not say why.
Shortly after
acquiring the site, Padellaro erected a sign at the entrance with an painted
image of a mill and wording suggesting the city would be a partner in a
redevelopment. "Lawrence Proud, City of Lawrence and Mayor Lantigua,"
the sign reads in large, bright letters. A spokesman for Lantigua said the
mayor did not authorize use of his name.
Padellaro was
fired from the Police Department in 1998 following an investigation by lawyer
Kenneth Homsey into allegations about his conduct.
One of those
allegations was that Padellaro lied in a police report when he wrote that a
gang member came out of a car wielding a sawed-off shotgun on Aug. 17, 1997,
after Padellaro chased the car onto West Street.
That gang
member was charged in state court while another man in the car with him who was
the alleged leader of the Latin Gangsta Deciples was indicted in federal court
on serious gun charges.
But state and
federal prosecutors dropped the charges against the pair when they decided
Padellaro had created a credibility issue by changing his statement on whether
the man was holding the shotgun.
He was also
found to have overbilled the department or engaged in double-dipping nine times
in 1997.
In one case he
put in for eight hours of court time when he was in court for just four hours,
and also submitted slips to be paid for a work detail while he was getting paid
to be in court or on regular patrol duty.
Known as a
fearless officer always willing to race through a dark back yard after a
criminal, he received a department commendation for helping catch a man charged
with robbing the Shaws Supermarket in 1989, and was honored with three other
officers for rescuing a 15-year-old girl from the Merrimack River in 1992.