Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

The state Attorney General's office on Tuesday charged Robert Legacy in an alleged scheme with one count each of embezzlement, conspiracy and receiving stolen goods, and his son with larceny and conspiracy. The embezzlement charge carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence while conspiracy, reciving stolen goods, and larceny have maximums of 10 years each.

The police originally charged the father with multiple counts of receiving stolen goods, but the Attorney General's office combined the repeated stolen-goods charges into the one charge, and added the other two charges. Kevin Legacy originally was charged with multiple counts of larcent, but that also was combined into one charge, and the Attorney General's office added a conspiracy charge.

They have been charged through a criminal information, bringing the felony case into Superior Court, according to documents filed on Tuesday. An information has the same force as a grand jury indictment.

Robert Legacy has been suspended without pay from the school district.

On April 1 this year, Chandler left a message at Schools Supt. Donna Morelle's home saying he was "unsettled about a school situation," Morelle said in her statement to police. She called him back at about 7:15 that night, and she said he told her he'd done some legwork to try to locate missing computers and that he had noticed inconsistencies.

Chandler was "very upset, very worried, restless," according to Morelle's statement, and she suggested that he write down what he recalled happening.

According to a police narrative, the first person known to receive a computer was Lorna Lafond, a Cumberland High School human resources clerk who told the police that Legacy installed the Dell desktop at her home on Sept. 1, 2007. Lafond's April 16 statement to police said she wrote a $700 check to Legacy at her home for a computer she needed before school started.

She had no idea the computer belonged to the school district. "I am totally in the dark about this," she told police.

"He said that he had a friend who had bought a computer for each of his kids, and that his kids now wanted laptops," Lafond said. "He said that his friend had new computers in the box to sell."

According to police, interviews of witnesses suggested that Legacy typically gave either of a couple stories to people he allegedly sold the computers. One was that a relative was going to computer auctions and getting computers for a cheap price. The other was that a friend who had purchased computers no longer wanted them and was giving them away.

Stepka, the elementary school principal, told the police on April 9 that he bought the computer for his home for $500 in fall 2008 from Legacy. Legacy told Stepka he had six computers, most of them spoken for, but if one was not picked up in two weeks, Legacy would sell it to Stepka. The sale of the computer to Stepka happened at Cumberland High School, in the basement of the transitional building, Stepka's statement says.

David Audette, a school district maintenance employee, said in his April 10 statement to police that he bought a home computer from Legacy in about May 2008 for $350 in cash and a laptop in September 2008 for $400 cash.

Legacy said he would go with his brother-in-law to get computers "at some company which gets new computers," and that he gots rid of the old one and picked the good ones, Audette's statement says.

"I met with Bob Legacy at his office," Audette recalled, according to the police. "We then went to his truck. He gave me the computer," and Audette said he either gave him the money while out at the truck or before that in Legacy's office. He stated that Legacy gave him the computer "in a green money canvas bag, the kind that you put money in and lock the bag."

Kim Berard, a secretary at the Community School who works at the business office at Cumberland High's transitional building, told the police on April 15 that she purchased a computer from Legacy in May 2008 with a $250 check.

Legacy had come into the office one day "saying that he could purchase a computer through an upgrade," Berard's statement says. "His brother works for John Hancock and could purchase laptop computers" if someone wanted one. She said she told Legacy she would be interested in buying a computer.

"He told me that he was out of them at this time, but told me he was getting more in and would get one for me," she said.

Legacy brought the computer to the office --- the statement is not clear if the office was at the high school transitional building or the Community School --- and he told her the type of router she would need to give the computer wireless capability.

She took the computer home, but "we had problems with the computer," which kept shutting off. She said she told Legacy, who told her to bring it to the school so he could look at it.

"There was a problem with the fan and he just replaced it with another computer, the one that I just gave you," Berard said, according to her police statement.

Was she aware the computer might be Cumberland school district property?

"Not in my wildest dreams," Berard said.