Father, son plead guilty in ground zero theft case

LEWISTON – A father and son accused of taking a firefighter’s jacket and a police officer’s hat from ground zero after the attacks on the World Trade Center pleaded guilty Tuesday in District Court.

The son, Louie Senecal III, 19, was handed a suspended 30-day jail term, placed on probation for one year and ordered to complete 40 hours of community service.

His father, Louis Senecal Jr., 49, will remain in Cumberland County Jail until Nov. 12, but not as a direct result of his guilty plea. The elder Senecal has been locked up since Sept. 23 for violating probation from an assault conviction. One of the violations was committed when he went to New York on Sept. 11 without telling his probation officer.

The Senecals, who live in Auburn, were charged with two counts of receiving stolen property after police got a tip that they returned from the World Trade Center attacks with a jacket belonging to the New York Fire Department and a hat belonging to the Altamont Police Department in upstate New York.

The men said they went to New York on the night of Sept. 11 to help search for survivors, and they accidentally came home with the jacket and hat.

Police say the father and son took the items as souvenirs and had bragged that they were heroes for assisting rescuers. But the community reacted with outrage after learning that they allegedly stole the jacket and hat.

Unlike his father who has a criminal record dating back to 1985, the younger Senecal has never been in trouble with the law.

Assistant District Attorney Pat Reynolds said she spoke with two New York City firefighters and a police officer from Altamont to get their comments.

An arson investigator for New York City insisted that jail was too harsh for a 19-year-old with no record. “His exact words were, ‘There is no need to ruin a young man’s life,”‘ Reynolds told Judge Andrew Horton.

Before Horton accepted the younger Senecal’s plea, he asked the teen if he had anything to say to the court.

“I didn’t go down to New York to steal something,” the younger Senecal said. “I went down there to help and volunteer. I’m not sure what else to say.”

Despite the elder Senecal’s guilty pleas to the two counts of receiving stolen property, as well as a third charge of theft by deception for an unrelated incident, his release date will remain the same.

“We are not going to ask for additional time because he’s been in there for so long,” Reynolds said.