Jersey follows the money; Maine, the bunny

Out in Indiana, a young man continues to rebuild his life. The son of Michael and Florence Phillips, who at age 10 saw his parents murdered in Machiasport in 1989, has overcome the horror and is now working on the obstacles. Young Michael is now 21, he’s engaged to be married, he’s had it with the dead-end jobs, he’s planning to go back to school to learn a trade, maybe something in automotive repair.

In another state not so far away, another young man, also 21, already is in school. It’s his fourth year at a prestigious private college, the kind of place where $35,000 a year merely covers the basics. He’s studying computers; in his spare time he pursues a high-class hobby, a snobby activity that involves training, equipment and lots of expensive travel. He grew up across the road from Michael Phillips. He’s the son of Richard Uffelman, the man who murdered Michael’s parents.

(Actually, he’s a bit more than just the son of a murderer. At his 1991 trial, the killer described life at his ”Five Posts Estate” – an armed camp of secret rooms, hidden passages, daily military drills a madhouse of heroic delusions, pseudo-military fantasies and whatever other demons he brought to rural Maine from his native New Jersey. The killer described how his well-drilled 10- and 12-year-old sons joined him in opening fire from their living room window on the Phillipses as they went for an evening walk as young Michael watched from his kitchen window. With fatherly pride that repulsed all in the courtroom, the killer also described how his sons went with him across the road to finish off the wounded couple at point-blank range.)

I compare these two young men not to cause young Uffelman any further pain – like Michael, he was robbed of his childhood by Richard Uffelman, he deserves a fresh start. The name of his school, a more complete description of his hobby would reveal his whereabouts and serve no useful purpose. His older brother, who went to college, changed his name and is now working, likewise deserves anonymity. And I compare them not to make the point that some people get breaks others do not.

I do it to make this point: In 1992, young Michael Phillips and Sandra, the sister in Indiana who raised him, won a wrongful death suit in Maine Superior Court against the Uffelman family. Two years later, a justice of that court attached a judgment of $513,320, essentially entitling Michael to all Uffelman assets and income. Seven years later, with accrued interest pushing the award near $1 million, Michael Phillips has received nothing, absolutely nothing, yet there seems to be something for costly tuition and expensive hobbies.

The Uffelman assets were, at one time at least, considerable. When Five Posts Estate burned to the ground a few months after the murders, a building made worthless by its owner’s monstrosity was converted into a $150,000 insurance settlement. There were 38 high-quality firearms, five collector cars, coin and military souvenir collections and, upon the death of Uffelman’s father a year after the trial, a quarter-million-dollar estate in New Jersey. Michael and Sandra pursued these assets for years, lately they’ve been joined by Brenda, his future mother-in-law, and until recently about all they had to show for it is an enormous stack of correspondence from authorities in two states who seem unable to help or uninterested in doing so. Richard Uffelman, whose life, and defense, was a mountain of lies, maintains that his trial lawyer, Kevin Wall of New Jersey, stole everything, and for some reason those who should investigate such crimes believe him. But then they don’t bother to investigate.

Since I first wrote about this last week, a few things have shaken loose, minor breakthroughs that have to be attributed to Brenda, the future mother-in-law who is becoming legendary at all levels of government in two states for her dogged persistence (although she lives in Indiana, she credits her stubbornness to being raised in Berwick). The Maine Department of Corrections is working to protect the small portion of Michael’s interests under its jurisdiction. The town of Machiasport is clearing up snags that have clouded the title to the Uffelman lot that should be Michael’s. The Maine Secretary of State’s office traced those five cars and, while unable to locate them, at least tried to help and did determine they hadn’t been registered here since 1990.

In New Jersey, the breakthroughs have been more significant. Just a few days ago, Brenda and Michael had a long talk with a very interested investigator for the Special Prosecutor’s Office. Some long-awaited information about an Uffelman account came through from another state agency. They’ve been given information about exceptions to the statute of limitations.

Maine authorities in position to go after the big money, the massive theft, the fraud, the tax evasion and all the other possibilities have yet to grasp the significance of this case. The Attorney General’s Office is becoming legendary for ignoring this matter – apparently they’re too busy hounding willing participants in pyramid schemes. When I called the governor’s office the other day to see what kind of concerted, multi-jurisdictional effort Maine’s top elected official was pulling together, Communications Director John Ripley assured me he had no idea what I was talking about and thought it appropriate to compare Gov. King talking to Attorney General Steven Rowe to Gov. King talking to the Easter Bunny. I’m unsure what point Mr. Ripley was trying to make with his glib response, but I strongly suggest he not try that stuff on Brenda.

So for the benefit of the state’s chief executive, its top law-enforcement official and others who still don’t understand, here’s a quick summary of why a full investigation is called for: The very first thing Richard Uffelman did when arrested in 1989 was to attempt to transfer all of his assets to his father in New Jersey; the fire a few months later was extraordinarily convenient and, thanks to a cellar full of inexplicable chemicals, utterly inextinguishable; Uffelman says Wall stole roughly $500,000 but has never filed a criminal complaint, even when Wall was here in Maine just two years ago for a hearing on Uffelman’s motion for a new trial. And now evidence that even from a prison cell Richard Uffelman is able to provide for his sons in a way fathers not doing life for double murder and not owing $513,320 plus interest would envy. Anybody who believes all the money that rightfully belongs to Michael Phillips has simply disappeared and is not worth looking for believes in something far more absurd than Mr. Ripley’s Easter Bunny

Bruce Kyle is the assistant editorial page editor at the Bangor Daily News.