Former executive director of the Carver, Marion, Wareham Regional Refuse Disposal District and Marion’s former executive secretary, town clerk, assessor, and building commissioner Ray Pickles died on December 20 just two days after turning 86, according to an obituary posted by Bartlett Funeral Home.
Pickles was facing criminal charges that stemmed from his role as the executive director for the Carver/Marion/Wareham Regional Refuse Disposal District, a position he held for 28 years.
The board that oversees the CMWRRDD terminated Pickles’ employment in February 2018 after a number of financial inconsistencies surfaced, which was followed by a civil lawsuit alleging that Pickles had stolen over $800,000 since 2012.
Pickles was indicted by a grand jury on March 18, 2019, and charged with six counts of Grand Larceny for allegedly stealing $675,000, punishable by up to five years in state prison, a fine of up to $25,000, or imprisonment in jail for up to two years.
Pickles was to face a trial by a jury of his peers beginning on February 24, 2020.
A representative from Attorney General Maura Healy’s office told The Wanderer on December 30 that the office is aware of Pickles’ passing and is currently reviewing the case. The process will involve an official filing of Pickles’ death certificate with the court and will likely result in the eventual dismissal of the charges.
Criminal charges against former Carver Health Agent and former CMWRRDD Board Chairman Robert Tinkham, Jr., however, will still move ahead.
Tinkham faces one count of Grand Larceny and one count of Presentation of False Claims.
Pickles is survived by how wife, Diane Bondi-Pickles, 67, who is also named as a defendant in the CMWRRDD’s civil suit.
Bondi-Pickles was listed as the president of the now-defunct Moss Hollow Management, Inc., the corporate entity under which Pickles operated and was paid since 2000, even after June of 2017 when it was involuntarily dissolved by the Secretary of State’s Corporations Division.
As far as the CMWRRDD Board’s civil suit against Pickles, Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 228, Section 7 states that if a defendant in a personal action dies before final judgment, “…the action may be prosecuted by the surviving… defendant, as the case may be. If all… defendants die, the action may be… defended by or against the executor or administrator of the last surviving… defendant, respectively.”
Pickles, a Marion resident, was still serving as town clerk when the civil suit was filed, and the Board of Selectmen asked Pickles to resign from his town clerk position back in April 2019 after criminal charges were filed.
Town Meeting subsequently voted to de-fund the town clerk position for the 2020 fiscal year, and Pickles eventually resigned on September 3, 2019, due to health issues.
By Jean Perry