Theft charge dropped against Hampden woman

BANGOR – Penobscot County prosecutors dropped a felony theft charge Friday against a Hampden woman who had been accused of misusing a company credit card and making questionable reimbursements.

In court documents, the Penobscot County District Attorney’s Office noted that Lorrie St. Pierre’s former employer “has acknowledged that the [she] did not commit a criminal act and should not have been accused.”

That was great news for St. Pierre, 34, who said she has had to struggle with the shame of the accusation. She was fired from a job she had held for two years and has had difficulties in getting unemployment because of faulty records.

“I’m ecstatic,” said St. Pierre on Friday. Until her termination Aug. 30, she had been a workers’ compensation senior claims examiner for Nationwide Insurance.

“My main concern is I need my integrity back,” she said Friday afternoon. “Before I can hold my head up in that community, I need for people to know I was falsely accused.”

The dismissal came the same day that St. Pierre was scheduled to make an initial appearance in 3rd District Court in Bangor.

That a case like this would go this far only to be dismissed is unusual, said Deputy District Attorney Michael Roberts. He was told Friday morning by Bangor police that Nationwide Insurance was adamant that there was no theft.

“It hasn’t happened to me before,” said Roberts, who has been a prosecutor for 21 years.

A representative for Nationwide could not be reached Friday. Nationwide, based in Columbus, Ohio, is one of the largest diversified insurance and financial services organizations in the world, with more than $148 billion in assets.

In a letter dated Oct. 18 – about six weeks after she was fired and 12 days after she was summoned for theft – the company listed 10 cases amounting to more than $4,200 it said were unpaid by St. Pierre or were questionable expenses. One case was identified as an unauthorized payment for cable Internet access.

The largest single charge was for an American Express credit card account for $2,182.21. St. Pierre said the company provided her a credit card in her name for expenses, including mileage for trips for which she would be reimbursed. She then paid off the credit card balance.

St. Pierre said she was confused by the inclusion of this charge because she was told that she could apply her unused vacation time toward paying down the balance.

Since getting the letter, St. Pierre has sent the company a check for the full amount, although she said she has yet to be paid any vacation time she is owed.

The insurance company also claimed she owed $675 for cellular phone service. St. Pierre said the company gave her the phone so she could be reached at any time, including after hours.

The high-speed cable access also was authorized by the company to allow St. Pierre to work at her home and finish paperwork she couldn’t do at the office.

As the sole workers’ compensation representative for the company in the state, St. Pierre said, she would travel around Maine, including sometimes with her out-of-state boss. Thus, she said, she was puzzled by more than $1,300 in travel expenses the company called questionable.

St. Pierre said she initially was denied unemployment and she had to supply W-2 forms to verify that she had worked three of the four months she was told unemployment officials had no records for.