A federal prosecutor will ask a judge Friday to mete out a stiff sentence for former Chelsea Selectwoman Carole Swan, saying she lied about her ability to pay a fine, failed to report property she sold and perjured herself by claiming she could not read or write well.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Donald Clark says Swan lied to the U.S. Probation Office when she failed to report that she gave a gravel pit in Windsor to her son Jacob and failed to report that she owned and then sold property on McLaughlin Circle in Chelsea. Clark said those actions amount to obstructing justice.
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Swan, 56, of Chelsea, was convicted of extortion, federal workers’ compensation fraud and income tax fraud during two separate jury trials last year, and she has been free on unsecured bail pending the sentencing hearing.
Swan’s attorney, Leonard Sharon, did not file a response in court to Clark’s accusations as of Friday afternoon.
The U.S. Probation Office conducts a presentencing investigation of each defendant, partly to determine an ability to pay a fine. The reports from those investigations are not public.
Carole Swan is expected to get a longer sentence than the 33 months her husband, Marshall, received on June 2, when he was sentenced on convictions of five counts of filing false income tax returns.
“Given what she was convicted of, I believe her guideline range will be higher,” Clark said shortly after Marshall Swan’s sentencing.
Marshall Swan’s sentencing guideline range was 27 to 33 months.
Carole Swan was convicted Sept. 17 of three counts of extortion for using her position as a selectwoman to seek kickbacks from Frank Monroe, who held the contract to plow and sand Chelsea’s roads. Swan was convicted July 27 of two counts of workers’ compensation fraud and five counts of income tax fraud.
In a filing last week in U.S. District Court in Bangor, Clark said Swan provided “materially false information” to the probation office indicating she has no ability to pay a fine and listing assets of $36,135, liabilities of $28,978 and a net worth of $5,909.
Clark said she failed to report on Aug. 26, after being convicted of tax and workers’ compensation fraud, that she had given a gravel pit at Twenty Rod Road, Windsor, to her son Jacob Swan. The document itself is dated Feb. 1, 2013, and reflects that it is a deed transfer.
Clark said the 25-acre parcel is assessed at $52,000. He said Swan reported in a residential loan application in 1998 that the pit was worth $700,000.
“She also failed to report her ownership and sale of real property located on McLaughlin Circle in Chelsea on April 28, 2014, having an assessed value (of) $32,810,” Clark wrote.
Town records show the parcel is 1.65 acres. It was originally listed for sale in October 2012 for $17,500 and sold in April to abutters for $9,000.
The Swans’ single-family home sold on Sept. 23 for $275,000 with 16.3 acres.
The Swans still own property in Chelsea, including a residence.
In an earlier court filing, the prosecutor sought an enhanced sentence for Carole Swan, saying she had committed perjury by testifying falsely during her trial and at a pretrial hearing.
Clark said Swan committed perjury by:
• Saying “she was conducting her own investigation into Monroe for overbilling Chelsea for sand.”
• Providing an inaccurate description of events involving deputies who stopped her on Chapel Street in Augusta almost immediately after they witnessed her receiving a “sting” package of marked bills from Monroe.
• Saying she “cannot write well and read only very little.”
Clark also said Swan repeatedly testified falsely about her ability to work, her work for Marshall Swan Construction, her ownership of a harness racing business and her separation from Marshall Swan because of 30 years of domestic abuse.
Clark’s memo said Swan “was caught accepting a bribe and confessed” in an interview with deputies, and that “she reads and writes well enough to have graduated from high school, been employed as a rural mail carrier and been a selectman in Chelsea for 19 years.”
He also wrote, “Although her marriage was undoubtedly dysfunctional, her claims of abuse were largely fabricated” and “she was not 100 percent disabled as she claimed, but was self-employed and involved in numerous business activities.” Clark also said Carole Swan substituted a one-year extension of a plow contract with Monroe, which was signed by two other Chelsea selectmen, for a two-year extension, which she “delivered to Monroe and placed in Chelsea’s official records.”
“Chelsea and Monroe have been in litigation ever since over the chaos Swan created,” Clark wrote.
Last week, U.S. District Chief Judge John A. Woodcock Jr. told Marshall Swan that he imposed the lengthier sentence because Swan had obstructed justice in sending two men to damage Monroe’s property. Monroe, of Whitefield, was the main witness against Carole Swan on the charges that she extorted money from Monroe in return for his keeping his Chelsea contract. Woodcock said that attempt at witness intimidation struck “at the very heart of the judicial system.”
Two of Monroe’s pickup trucks and heavy construction equipment were damaged late on Nov. 3, 2012, a few days after both Swans were indicted on numerous federal fraud charges and shortly after Marshall Swan met with the two men.
Woodcock fined Marshall Swan $40,000 after finding he had the ability to pay a fine roughly equivalent to 10 percent of his assets.
On the day Marshall Swan was sentenced, he paid the $145,000 in income taxes the couple owed for the years 2006 to 2010.
He said he saved money from the sale of the family home to help pay Carole Swan’s restitution to the federal workers’ compensation program. “I am paying huge bills to wash her slate clean,” Marshall Swan told the judge that day.
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