Ricci estate lawsuit ends in settlement

PORTLAND – A lawsuit over the estate of businessman Joseph Ricci, which was scheduled to go to trial later this month, has ended in a negotiated settlement.

Ricci, the owner of the Scarborough Downs racetrack and the Elan School for troubled teenagers, died of lung cancer on Jan. 29, 2001.

His son Noah had sued his stepmother, Sharon Terry, claiming she tricked his father into signing a document that made her, and not his two sons, the primary beneficiary of the trust that held the two businesses and other assets.

Terry said her husband changed the trust to avoid paying estate taxes, and planned to compensate his sons with long-term employment contracts instead.

After a six-hour settlement conference Tuesday, Noah Ricci and Terry resolved their differences for an undisclosed amount.

Terry’s attorney, Edward MacColl, would not discuss the terms of the agreement but said it would not affect the operation of either Scarborough Downs or Elan.

At the heart of the dispute were wildly different projections of the values of Ricci’s holdings.

In court documents, Noah Ricci estimated his father’s total worth as “at least $30 million,” including $17.4 million for the two businesses and $1.5 million for the family house and land in Falmouth.

In court documents, Terry claimed that the trust had more debts than assets, citing alimony owed to Noah Ricci’s mother and inheritance taxes owed to the IRS.

Joseph Ricci, a flamboyant businessman known for his confrontational style, ran twice for governor and once led a pro-gambling referendum campaign.

The year before he died, Ricci was called to testify before a Connecticut grand jury when Michael Skakel, a former student at Elan, was investigated in connection with a homicide committed shortly before he attended the school. Skakel was convicted in 2003.