The two other defendants named in a fraud and embezzlement complaint against former CMWRRDD executive director Ray Pickles, Pickles’ wife Diane Bondi-Pickles, and former Carver health agent Robert Tinkham Jr., were back in court on January 14 with a request for dismissal of the nine fraud-related counts that allege the three conspired together to defraud the regional trash district of over $838,000 over five years.
Pickles was fired in January 2018 from the position he held since the inception of the Carver, Marion, Wareham Regional Refuse Disposal District back in 1972.
The Brockton Plymouth County Superior Court Judge Robert Cosgrove presided over the case that was moved to the Brockton location from the Plymouth court location back on November 23, 2018. Court documents indicate that Judge Cosgrove has heard the matter and has taken it under advisement and must issue a decision within 30 days.
Tinkham who individually and under his business 33-35 Wareham Street, LLC was also named a defendant, filed for dismissal back on November 7, citing the district’s failure to effectively state a claim against him. The district filed a motion of opposition to Tinkham’s motion to dismiss, as well as to Bondi-Pickles’ subsequent November 26 motion to dismiss, which included a dismissal of the civil complaints against Bondi-Pickles as owner and president of Moss Hollow Management Corporation, the now defunct consulting business under which Pickles had been doing business as executive director.
Under Moss Hollow Management Corporation, listed under Bondi-Pickles, Pickles paid himself an additional $281,909 between July 1, 2012 and January 2018, in addition to his salary.
Tinkham, who was assigned to perform inspections of the Carver landfill that was under Pickles’ management, is accused of conspiring with Pickles “to personally convert more than $262,000.00 of the District’s funds for his own personal use from 2010-2018,” as stated in the original compliant.
The complaint alleges that Pickles, who is the former town administrator of Marion and remains Marion’s current town clerk, withdrew more than $295,548.00 of the district’s funds for his own personal use, including $113,321 in unauthorized checks, more than $150,000 in cash withdrawals between 2016-2018, and $31,227 in mileage reimbursements from 2012-2017.Under Moss Hollow Management Corporation, Pickles allegedly paid himself an additional $281,909 between July 1, 2012 and January 2018, in addition to his regular salary.
The case is slated for a trial by jury in 2021.
By Jean Perry