mojo
02-13-2002, 06:50 AM
http://www.abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/DailyNews/accused_clerk020212.html
Stealing From the Dead
Court Clerk Accused of Robbing from Estates to Buy Ferraris
By Steve Osunsami
Feb. 12
— As a county clerk at the Bexar County Courthouse in San Antonio, Texas, Mel Spillman, 55, made $33,000 a year. He was mild-mannered, well-liked, and well-respected.
But when the law finally caught up with him, Spillman was living a little too large, in a $400,000 home with expensive antiques.
And then there were the Ferraris: five of them, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars each. By all accounts, it was pretty impressive on a county clerk's salary.
Spillman's neighbors remember seeing pit crews working on the cars, in his garage. The garage was that large.
"Mel told us that he had inherited this money from his father," said Bernice Fischl, who lives next door to Spillman. But like most everyone else in Mel's life, she now believes she was fooled.
Investigators say Spillman gained his riches by pretending he still worked in the probate office, where the unclaimed estates of the dead are settled.
Police say Spillman gave up the probate jobs several years ago, but knew the system so well, he continued to help people who needed probate help.
"He was considered the man at the courthouse who knew everything about probate," said Bexar District Attorney Susan Reed. "He sure did."
Taking Charge of Estates
Reed says the minute anyone in the county died without an obvious heir, Spillman would get the call. The medical examiner and the area's funeral directors, she explained, didn't know any better. Reed says Spillman would then use stolen county seals to draw up papers that would put him in charge of the estates. And he did this, she said, before it was possible for the state to record the death.
After an estimated 15 years of cheating the system, police arrested Spillman at an area bank. He was caught, police say, withdrawing a dead man's cash.
A search of Spillman's home yielded suitcases full of records. In all, investigators believe he controlled 65 estates, worth millions of dollars.
In the evidence room where the documents are being stored, Assistant District Attorney Cliff Herberg explained the depth of the theft. "All of these containers, these boxes you see represent a story of someone's life," he said.
According to prosecutors, the records show Spillman would not only take control of the estates, but would also immediately liquidate the assets. Homes, jewelry, and furniture were all sold.
Included in the records are wills, which Spillman allegedly got to first, and kept in his files.
One of those wills belonged to James Hall, who died alone, and left his half-million-dollar estate to an old friend in Chicago. Gerald Griffin never even knew that Hall had died, and he never received the money.
"I think [Spillman] is a monster," he said. "After Frankenstein came Mel Spillman. Look what he did to us."
Defense Maintains It Was All Business
Spillman maintains he's innocent, but prosecutors say their case is an easy one. They plan to paint Spillman as a crook who is so in love with race cars, he would rob graves to feed his obsession.
"He lived, breathed, ate, drank Ferraris," Reed explained. "They were everywhere. It was everything to him. It was the color of his clothes, it was the color of his house, it was the signs on the walls." It was also a business.
Spillman's attorney admits that his client rented his cars to wanna-be racers for $4,000 a race. Spillman even provided the pit crews, confirming his neighbors' window-peep observations.
No trial date has been set, but Spillman faces a possible sentence of life in prison, where prosecutors hope he will go nowhere fast.
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i wonder if he really thought that nobody would notice, given he left a huge paper trail every time he did something :rolleyes:
Stealing From the Dead
Court Clerk Accused of Robbing from Estates to Buy Ferraris
By Steve Osunsami
Feb. 12
— As a county clerk at the Bexar County Courthouse in San Antonio, Texas, Mel Spillman, 55, made $33,000 a year. He was mild-mannered, well-liked, and well-respected.
But when the law finally caught up with him, Spillman was living a little too large, in a $400,000 home with expensive antiques.
And then there were the Ferraris: five of them, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars each. By all accounts, it was pretty impressive on a county clerk's salary.
Spillman's neighbors remember seeing pit crews working on the cars, in his garage. The garage was that large.
"Mel told us that he had inherited this money from his father," said Bernice Fischl, who lives next door to Spillman. But like most everyone else in Mel's life, she now believes she was fooled.
Investigators say Spillman gained his riches by pretending he still worked in the probate office, where the unclaimed estates of the dead are settled.
Police say Spillman gave up the probate jobs several years ago, but knew the system so well, he continued to help people who needed probate help.
"He was considered the man at the courthouse who knew everything about probate," said Bexar District Attorney Susan Reed. "He sure did."
Taking Charge of Estates
Reed says the minute anyone in the county died without an obvious heir, Spillman would get the call. The medical examiner and the area's funeral directors, she explained, didn't know any better. Reed says Spillman would then use stolen county seals to draw up papers that would put him in charge of the estates. And he did this, she said, before it was possible for the state to record the death.
After an estimated 15 years of cheating the system, police arrested Spillman at an area bank. He was caught, police say, withdrawing a dead man's cash.
A search of Spillman's home yielded suitcases full of records. In all, investigators believe he controlled 65 estates, worth millions of dollars.
In the evidence room where the documents are being stored, Assistant District Attorney Cliff Herberg explained the depth of the theft. "All of these containers, these boxes you see represent a story of someone's life," he said.
According to prosecutors, the records show Spillman would not only take control of the estates, but would also immediately liquidate the assets. Homes, jewelry, and furniture were all sold.
Included in the records are wills, which Spillman allegedly got to first, and kept in his files.
One of those wills belonged to James Hall, who died alone, and left his half-million-dollar estate to an old friend in Chicago. Gerald Griffin never even knew that Hall had died, and he never received the money.
"I think [Spillman] is a monster," he said. "After Frankenstein came Mel Spillman. Look what he did to us."
Defense Maintains It Was All Business
Spillman maintains he's innocent, but prosecutors say their case is an easy one. They plan to paint Spillman as a crook who is so in love with race cars, he would rob graves to feed his obsession.
"He lived, breathed, ate, drank Ferraris," Reed explained. "They were everywhere. It was everything to him. It was the color of his clothes, it was the color of his house, it was the signs on the walls." It was also a business.
Spillman's attorney admits that his client rented his cars to wanna-be racers for $4,000 a race. Spillman even provided the pit crews, confirming his neighbors' window-peep observations.
No trial date has been set, but Spillman faces a possible sentence of life in prison, where prosecutors hope he will go nowhere fast.
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i wonder if he really thought that nobody would notice, given he left a huge paper trail every time he did something :rolleyes: