Poli-ticks

Will we see a double standard?

By Arlene Violet
Posted 8/8/18

Imagine this. You have your credit card purloined by a low-income young woman who lives in South Providence. She charges hundreds of dollars in airfare for her and her spouse. A $165 service at a …

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Poli-ticks

Will we see a double standard?

Posted

Imagine this. You have your credit card purloined by a low-income young woman who lives in South Providence. She charges hundreds of dollars in airfare for her and her spouse. A $165 service at a hair salon perks up her locks or another family member's, thanks to you. She is an animal lover so she charges a $79 pet carrier case on Amazon as well as her Prime membership. You are not sure how she spent up to $11,000 at places like the Christmas Tree Shop , Home Depot, Edible Arrangements, Stop and Shop, Waters Edge, and Bed, Bath and Beyond, since there are no receipts. She gets caught after making these charges numerous times. She pleads that they were inadvertent and that she has little education so didn’t fully understand what she was doing.

Would you shrug your shoulders, and say,”Ok, give her a break. Don’t prosecute her?” I bet that she’d be prosecuted to the proverbial fullest extent of the law and get a jail sentence based on the fact that she shows conscious acts by making these charges multiple times over an extended period of time and made no repayment for any transaction. On Amazon, she’d have to type in the card number so she had to look at it.

Of course, there is no low-income young woman that took your credit card. One of the “beautiful people” did. Unlike the person from a depressed neighborhood, Bridget Morisseau is a PhD educated school superintendent who earned 6 figures plus full benefits. Her lawyer told the Providence Journal that all these charges were inadvertent and they reject any suggestion that there was purposeful wrongdoing. So much for contrition, hmm?

Ms. Morisseau has yet to pay back any “inadvertent” purchases. She “explained” some charges by citing that family members used her credit card by mistake for the hair styling and a $1000 catering bill. When the school committee clerk asked for a further explanation regarding what went on in her home in that family members had access to the charge card she snapped at him, telling him that what goes on in her house is her business. He commented that the card says “business” on the top and “School Department” on the bottom. Her “business” actually is taxpayers' business since taxpayers fund the school budget.

North Providence Mayor Charles Lombardi correctly noted the lack of accountability to and from the school committee. With a straight face, Chairman Anthony Marciano defended the committee — even praising it — by saying it did a good job. Reportedly, the school committee didn’t check out her former boss at Smithfield schools.

From all indications, however, it would appear that the poohbahs in North Providence just want the situation to go away by her paying the town back. No one is even mentioning that she should forfeit any pension benefit funded by the town during her tenure. So, that gets you back to the earlier question herein. Do you think a low-income person would be let off the hook and not prosecuted if these facts bear out? Here’s another question: Will she get prosecuted? What about her husband and the “family member” who used the card?

You are about to get a civics lesson.

Arlene Violet is an attorney and former Rhode Island Attorney General.


Arlene Violet

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