Case Against Former Tax Collector Slowly Makes its Way Through Civil Court

The civil case against former Tax Collector Karen Guillet has been continued at Milford Superior Court until next month.

A second hearing in was supposed to be held at the courthouse on Friday, but was continued until April 1.

 Guillet is accused of stealing more than $670,000 from the tax collector's office over a roughly six-year span. The town has filed a civil lawsuit against Guillet in an attempt to recoup some of that money. A judge has agreed to attach half of Guillet's assets to the lawsuit, meaning the town can secure at least $150,000 worth of property from her. 

The following information is from a previous Patch story about the case:

The suit filed recently at Milford Superior Court alleges that Guillet stole a total of $671,768 was taken between July 2003 and December 2009.

The suit states Guillet admitted to taking $3,093 from the town after she was questioned about claims from unnamed whistle blowers who work in Town Hall on Jan. 13. Further investigation revealed that a tremendous amount more had been stolen.

Guillet, a Democrat, was tax collector for 24 years until she resigned on June 22, six months after the allegations were released to the public. Prior to then, she was on sick leave since January, when officials learned of monetary discrepancies within her office.

The allegations were made after someone noticed there were discrepencies involving tax payments received, deposit slips made and deposits presented to the local bank in which the taxpayer's office deposited tax payments.

As tax collector, Guillet was responsible or had the fiscal responsibility for receiving tax payments, preparing deposit slips for such tax payments and depositing the tax payments into a local bank.

An ad hoc committee composed of Board of Finance member John P. Kiley, Jr., Town Hall Administrative Assistant Joseph Calabrese and Finance Director James Hliva investigated the claims.

"The ad hoc committee determined that there was sufficient documentation or lack thereof (to the contrary) to indicate that defendant Guillet had taken other amounts of Oxford taxpayer payments or monies" on top of the roughly $3,000 she had admitted to stealing, the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit is an attempt to recoup the money taken and states that Guillet's home and property at 2 Douglas Drive should be attached to the repayments. The home, a 1,652-square-foot saltbox-style Colonial with three bedrooms and an in ground swimming pool, sits on .99 acres. It was built in 1978 and is appraised at $247,010, while the land is appraised at $74,800, according to Vision Appraisal Technologies, a company contracted to perform the town's revaluation of taxable property.

The lawsuit has brief written statements from the ad hoc committee members but does not offer specifics into the committee's findings. The document also does not state how the money was taken or how far back the investigation went.

The civil lawsuit is on top of criminal allegations. Guillet has not been arrested and the investigation is ongoing, First Selectman Mary Ann Drayton-Rogers said. It is being led by the State Police's Western District Major Crimes Unit, and investigators said it could take up to five years to complete, Drayton-Rogers said.

Guillet has not returned calls for comment.