Briefly in Porter County
October 9, 2012 4:26PM
Updated: October 9, 2012 4:51PM
CHESTERTON
GOP candidates night is Oct. 24
Porter County Republicans, in coordination with all Porter County Republican precinct organizations, will host a candidates night at 7 p.m. Oct. 24 at the Westchester Library Service Center, 100 W. Indiana.
Republican candidates who are on any Porter County ballot, along with current precinct committeemen, volunteers, officeholders and interested Republicans, are encouraged to attend.
Questions may be directed to Duneland GOP chairman Jon Miller at 841-2425.
VALPARAISO
Sale to be held at former hospital
A two-day public sale is scheduled to liquidate thousands of nonmedical items from the former Porter hospital in Valparaiso. Items for sale will include furniture, file cabinets, office chairs, recliners, sleeper sofas, kitchen equipment, refrigerators, ice machines, freezers, flat-screen televisions, artwork and much more.
The sale, open to the public, will be held from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday at the former Porter hospital, at 814 LaPorte Ave. Items will be sold cash and carry only and must be removed at the time of payment.
Home detention for embezzler
The woman who embezzled an estimated $100,000 from a Valparaiso beauty salon she co-owned has pleaded to six of 10 charges against her, all of them reduced to Class D felonies.
Under the plea agreement submitted Tuesday, Monica J. Schmidt, 33, will receive a sentence of two years each on three theft charges and on three fraud charges for taking money from the now-defunct Bella Cappelli Salon and Details at 902 Calumet Ave.
If Porter County Circuit Court Judge Mary Harper accepts the agreement at Schmidt’s Dec. 18 sentencing, Schmidt will serve four years on home detention and two years on probation, or she could choose to serve a year of weekends in Porter County Jail instead of the last two years in home detention.
If Schmidt makes $50,000 or more restitution after two years of home detention, detention could end early.
Tammy S. Ferrari, the co-owner who handled business operations, discovered the crimes in October 2010 when Schmidt wouldn’t turn financial records over so they could get a loan to move, and then the Internal Revenue Service gave notice in November 2011 that Bella Cappelli owed back taxes.
Court documents estimate that Schmidt took $115,000 in 2008, $136,000 in 2009 and $143,000 in 2010 and also took out at least three credit cards in Ferrari’s name, although her name was misspelled.
Ferrari filed a lawsuit July 3 on behalf of herself and the salon against Schmidt and the Valparaiso accountant that Ferrari alleges wasn’t able to produce paperwork on taxes for the April 26 IRS audit.
Two years for heroin charge
A Hanna man was sentenced to two years in Porter County Jail for being caught with drugs while on probation for a heroin-related charge.
Ross Charles Berg, 24, had pleaded to one of the Class D felonies against him, possession of a narcotic drug, although police found an Oxycodone pill, four foil packets of heroin and four Oxymorphone pills on him on Jan. 31 near Valparaiso.
Berg was already on probation for a Sept. 2010 sentence for Class D felony possession of heroin, pleaded down from a dealing charge.
Portage
Man accused of molesting two
A Portage man has been charged with four counts of felony child molesting for incidents that allegedly took place between January 2010 and August 2011.
Scott W. Nicol, 53, faces 20 to 50 years imprisonment on each of two Class A felony child molesting charges and up to eight years imprisonment on each of two Class C felony child molesting charges.
Court files state the two alleged victims were younger than 14.
Man accused of stealing ring
A Portage man has been charged in connection with the theft of a money roll of $3,300 and a diamond ring from his employer’s home.
The alleged victim said she had hired Michael Sotelo, 21, in June to do landscaping at her house because she sorry for him being recently released from prison. The woman said Sotelo was the only one besides family that had been in the house, and she didn’t watch him when he used the bathroom next to the bedroom where she kept the items in a dresser drawer.
Police found him in Porter County Jail on unrelated charges on July 3, and he is being held without bond.
