Justice for Aunt Betty: Ex-cop loses bid for widow’s estate; judge cites forgeries and alerts DA (MA)

LAWRENCE — Elizabeth Lacey was suspicious of the double-chocolate cake, a present from retired Lawrence cop William Hale Sr.

She noticed the Pepperidge Farm box was already open. The frail 89-year-old said she thought the cake might be poisoned.

“She said, ‘Give it to the neighbor and if he’s living tomorrow, than we’ll know the cake was OK,’” said James Wareing of Methuen, a member of a family who called Lacey “Aunt Betty” and made her a part of their lives.

The family laughed at the time, Wareing recalled. But when Lacey died three months later, on May 1, 2007, they remembered the story as they mourned for Lacey.

Their grief turned to anger when a will signed by Lacey turned up that named Hale as the sole beneficiary of her estate.

A will written eight months before the date on the will naming Hale had left everything to Wareing, his mother and his two twin sisters.

Both wills were prepared by a longtime acquaintance of Hale — lawyer Robert Kelley, who is also the register of deeds for Northern Essex County.

Wareing and his family couldn’t believe Lacey had left her house and money to Hale, a man they said she distrusted and disliked because he badgered her for money.

Judge Mary Ann Sahagian didn’t believe it either when the wills were contested in Probate Court.

On July 7, she threw out the Hale will and approved the earlier will. Hale is appealing the decision.

Sahagian also referred her findings to District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett “to investigate, if he so wishes, the conduct of William Hale with respect to the conduct which led to his invoking the Fifth Amendment.”

Blodgett confirmed last week he is reviewing the matter.

Forged checks

The checks were what made the judge doubt Hale’s claims on the estate.

She said in her decision that Hale had cashed personal checks in Lacey’s name and also her monthly pension checks — both before and after she died.

On April 30, 2007, the day before Lacey was found dead, the judge found, Hale signed Lacey’s name to two checks totalling $9,000 — one for $2,500 that he cashed and another for $6,500 that he deposited in his own account. He forged her name to 17 other checks after her death, according to Sahagian’s “Findings of Fact.”

Lacey’s Sovereign Bank checking account was all but drained after her death.

When she died, Lacey had $66,000 in the account. Seven months later, in December 2007, her balance was just under $53, according to the documents in the case.

Sahagian said Hale also forged Lacey’s name to six monthly pension checks that he cashed after her death.

A veteran of 33 years with Lawrence Police, Hale repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination when questioned about the check cashing and alleged forgery during the 2009 probate trial.

The judge concluded that Hale had “insinuated himself” into Lacey’s life and used “undue influence” to affect her will. Lacey was “fearful and distrustful” of Hale and complained of his attempts to borrow money from her.

The judge also noted in her findings that Kelley — the lawyer who prepared both wills — had represented Hale in the past and had known him for 20 years.

She added that since at least 2000, “Attorney Kelley and William Hale have met weekly for drinks.”

Bryan Kerman, who represented the Wareing family during the probate trial, said the judge “saw the truth.”

“Bill Hale financially took advantage of a frail, elderly woman and utilized their common attorney, Robert Kelley, who was his drinking buddy,” said Kerman, a Methuen attorney. “The judge basically has done justice.”

Hale, 76, hung up on a reporter seeking comment for this story. His attorney, John Hodges of Tewksbury, said he filed an appeal of Sahagian’s decision last week because “we thought it was wrong.” He refused further comment, saying he had to meet someone.

Kelley said he prepared both of Lacey’s wills according to her wishes and did nothing improper.

“I was quite surprised the second will was thrown out,” said Kelley. “In my mind, she knew what she was doing … She was a strong, tough woman.”

Kelley also said in an interview at the Registry of Deeds last week that he had no idea Hale invoked the Fifth Amendment during the probate trial or that the judge concluded that Hale forged Lacey’s name and cashed her checks after her death.

“Obviously, I don’t give any kind of blessing to what went on after she died … Oh, my goodness gracious,” he said, after reading Sahagian’s decision last week.

The Wareing family said it has filed complaints with the Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers against both Kelley and attorney William Maloney, who shares office space with Kelley and signed as a witness to the second will. Maloney, who is also Lawrence city clerk, could not be reached for comment.

Child of immigrants

The child of Lithuanian immigrants, Elizabeth Bitautas was born in Lawrence on Aug. 3, 1917, according to her death certificate.

She married William Lacey in 1939, and they had two children. Both children died in a house fire on Jan. 1, 1948, and the Laceys divorced in 1953.

After the divorce, Lacey began dating George Hale — William Hale’s father, according to court documents. At the trial, William Hale recalled occasionally going to the beach as a boy with his father and Lacey.

The relationship lasted about 10 years. By the mid-1960s, Lacey was involved with another man, William Crotty.

They lived in Crotty’s home at 418 Andover St. until his death in 1993. After Crotty died and “left her nothing,” Kelley said, Lacey hired him to help her obtain ownership of the small, brick-front ranch she had lived in for decades.

Lacey owned the house outright at the time of her death. It was worth $175,000. She also had approximately $170,000 in checking and savings accounts, according to Wareing’s family.

Her initial will left all of it to Wareing, his mother and his twin sisters — the family of a woman who had been Lacey’s friend since childhood.

Growing up in Lawrence, Lacey had lived next door to Eleanor Sereigo. They enjoyed a “sister-like” relationship for 60 years, according to Judge Sahagian’s findings.

She also became close to Sereigo’s daughter, Joan McGuire, and McGuire’s seven children, including McGuire’s son, James Wareing, and Wareing’s twin sisters, Denise Clegg and Diane Forrester.

Sereigo died in 1977. But McGuire and her children remained close to their Aunt Betty.

Aunt Betty came to birthday parties and holiday gatherings. At weddings, she sat at the head table next to McGuire.

Wareing said he was an adult before he realized Aunt Betty was not a blood relative.

Lacey didn’t drive and Wareing’s twin sisters often drove her to bingo games, to do errands or go shopping. Both Clegg and Forrester borrowed money from Lacey and repaid the loans, according to the court findings.

After she retired in 1983 from Western Electric, Lacey received a monthly retirement check for $475 and other occasional checks from the company for $200 and $300, according to court papers.

In September 2000, Lacey met with Kelley to prepare a will and name a health care proxy.

In that will, her first, she bequeathed $20,000 each to twin sisters Clegg and Forrester, $10,000 to Wareing and the balance of the estate to McGuire. She also gave McGuire her health care proxy, with Clegg and Forrester as alternates if necessary.

Lacey gave a copy of the will to McGuire for safekeeping, according to Sahagian’s findings.

After that, McGuire and the twins went to bingo “practically every night” with Lacey and “continued to assist (Lacey) with her errands, shopping and transportation,” Sahagian wrote in her July 7 decision.

Hale reappears

Two months after Kelley prepared Lacey’s will, William Hale re-entered Lacey’s life — five decades after she had dated his father.

During the probate trial, Hale said Lacey called him in November 2000 for help “fixing her boiler.”

“Prior to this alleged telephone call in November 2000, Elizabeth Lacey had never called William Hale,” Sahagian wrote.

Hale said he and his son, George, went to Lacey’s home and fixed her boiler.

Shortly afterward, Hale started visiting Lacey once or twice a week. Sometimes he brought her lunch. Other times they went out to eat. Within a few months, Hale was having lunch with Lacey daily and for the most part, the two were alone when they dined.

By May 2001, Hale said, Lacey had decided to change the will she created just eight months before. Hale drove her to and from Kelley’s office to do so, but did not go into Kelley’s office with her, he testified.

Kelley said Lacey told him then that she no longer trusted “the twins,” Clegg and Forrester, and “all they wanted was money.”

Kelley prepared the new will, with Lacey leaving everything to Hale. In the event of Hale’s death, the entire estate would be split between Hale’s two sons, George and William Jr.

Sahagian wrote in her decision, “Lacey had only met George Hale one time in November and she had never met William Hale Jr. …”

“It strains credulity to think that Elizabeth Lacey would so drastically change her estate plan within an 8-month period and include an individual whom she never even met,” she added.

During the probate trial, Kerman asked Kelley if he was surprised Lacey had decided to bequeath everything she owned to his friend Hale.

“More power to him,” Kelley replied.

Hale testified that he was “very much surprised” when Lacey made him her heir.

“I was very overwhelmed. I had no idea she was going to be doing that,” Hale said.

Even after Hale and Kelley say that she rewrote her will in Hale’s favor, Lacey continued socializing with McGuire and the twins, attending family functions, spending most holidays with them and going to bingo, Sahagian wrote in her decision.

The Wareing family and its lawyer, Kerman, question whether Lacey knew she was signing a second will.

In July 2002 — more than a year after Kelley prepared the will leaving the estate to Hale — Lacey met with Methuen attorney Anthony DiFruscia to discuss her will and how her assets would be disbursed if McGuire died before she did, according to DiFruscia’s court testimony.

DiFruscia said he asked Lacey for a copy of her last will and testament.

Lacey provided him with a copy of the September 2000 will, the first will, which left everything to McGuire, Wareing and the twins, according to Sahagian.

DiFruscia testified Lacey told him it was the only will she had ever executed.

Death of Aunt Betty

On May 1, 2007, Lacey was found dead in her Andover Street home, slumped over in a rocking chair with a pillow on the floor next to her. The death certificate later listed emphysema as the cause. Lacey was a smoker.

A police officer sent to the home was told by a neighbor that Hale “takes care of her.”

“I contacted William Hale, he arrived at the house with Atty. Kelly (sic),” the officer said in his report.

Kelley’s memory of that day is different.

He said Hale called him while he was at a Rotary lunch and he stopped by Lacey’s house on his way home since he was in the neighborhood. Kelley testified Hale was already inside the home when he entered. Kelley said he stood in the kitchen “to be away from where the deceased was sitting in a rocking chair” and left after five to 10 minutes.

Wareing said Hale took charge of Lacey’s funeral and had her cremated.

Wareing says now that Lacey would never have wanted to be cremated because it would violate her beliefs as a member of the Lithuanian National Catholic Church — and because her two children had died in a house fire.

Wareing said his family learned of Lacey’s death from an Eagle-Tribune obituary and soon thereafter learned of the will naming Hale as her heir.

Kerman said the Wareing family did not contest the Hale will for personal gain.

“This has never been about the money or the property,” he said. “They felt there was a tremendous injustice here. They were looking for justice for Aunt Betty.”

Click here to read the judge’s ruling.

Attribution:

Justice for Aunt Betty
Ex-cop loses bid for widow’s estate; judge cites forgeries and alerts DA
Jill Harmacinski
July 24, 2011
Eagle-Tribune (MA)
http://www.eagletribune.com/local/x1475594935/Justice-for-Aunt-Betty