Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

PROVIDENCE -- A Superior Court magistrate today ordered a Middletown mother of three to pay her elderly aunt, whom she almost killed in a bleach attack, $2,430 in unreimbursed medical bills -- at the rate of $50 per month -- now that she's been paroled from prison. But the victim's lawyer is looking for much more.

Richard P. D'Addario, the lawyer for 73-year-old Mary S. Goulios, submitted an accounting after the hearing asking that the defendant, Evangeline "Lea" Henry, 48, be ordered to pay an additional $195,978.78 to her aunt -- money which he submits Henry stole from her aunt over a two-year period while Goulios was in a nursing home and assisted living. A hearing on that request is scheduled for April 28.

Meanwhile, at today's hearing, Magistrate Susan L. Revens said she would hold a progress hearing June 16 on the restitution ordered for Goulios' medical bills. D'Addario called the current payment schedule "ridiculous." "It will take four years to pay the medical bills off and we haven't even gotten to the embezzlement yet," he said.

The restitution hearings come in the wake of Henry's release from a three-year term of imprisonment imposed by Superior Court Judge Edwin J. Gale on May 31, 2006, for the bleach attack on Goulios. According to evidence presented at Henry's trial, Henry, who was Goulios' court-appointed guardian, went to her aunt's apartment at the AHEPA house, 87 Girard Ave., in Newport, on Dec. 15, 2004, stuffed a rag with Clorox bleach into her mouth and poured bleach over her. When a neighbor who heard Goulios' cries called the police, they had to knock down the door to gain entry. They found Goulios on her back and Henry kneeling on her aunt's shoulders with her right fist shoved inside Goulios' mouth.

In imposing sentence, Gale said that Goulios "was seriously injured and I find that without neighborly concern coupled with police intervention, this would likely have been a murder prosecution.''

The bleach attack resulted from an acrimonious relationship that developed between Henry and her aunt while Goulios was under guardianship after she lapsed into a diabetic coma in 2002. Upon recovering, Goulios accused her niece of stealing her money. The prosecution asserted that Henry was afraid that her aunt would press charges against her so she attacked her with the bleach.

Henry was paroled on Sept. 19, 2007 -- after about 16 months behind bars.

Before going to prison, Henry repaid her aunt about $20,000 and agreed today, through her lawyer, to repay the $2,430 in medical bills. But there will be an objection to D'Addario's request for more, said Houlihan.

 Tags  Evangeline Henry Middletown Newport

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