Lucia Faria listens during her sentencing in Penobscot County Superior Court on Wednesday. Faria was sentenced to three years in prison for stealing more than $40,000 from elderly residents and her employer. Buy Photo
BANGOR, Maine - The prosecutor called it elder abuse. The defense attorney said it was the result of an illness. Members of Gamblers Anonymous warned the judge to expect more cases just like it.
Lucia Faria, 41, of Bangor was sentenced Wednesday in Penobscot County Superior Court to three years in prison for stealing more than $40,000 from elderly patients at the Bangor facility where she worked and gambling it away at Hollywood Slots.
Greg Campbell, assistant district attorney for Penobscot County, said it was the most serious case related to gambling at Hollywood Slots since the facility opened on Main Street three years ago.
Faria, a Portuguese citizen in the United States legally, admitted stealing $43,700 from three victims — two of whom are over the age of 80 — and her employer over a 15-month period in 2006 and 2007. She pleaded guilty on Sept. 2 to forgery and theft charges after being indicted by the Penobscot County grand jury in April. She also pleaded guilty for failing to appear in court in May.
Faria had no criminal record.
She faced up to 10 years in prison, a fine of up to $20,000 and could have been ordered to pay restitution.
Faria took checks from three patients at The Country Villa, an assisted living facility on Kenduskeag Avenue, where she worked as a housekeeper. She forged them to get money for the slot machines. She also borrowed money from patients and her employer on the pretext that she needed it to return to Portugal to care for a sick brother.
“This is a classic case of elder abuse,” Campbell told the court. “These are reprehensible crimes against our most vulnerable citizens. This was a tremendous breach of trust in which she bilked senior citizens out of a substantial amount of their life savings.”
Defense attorney Kirk Bloomer of Bangor said that Faria’s crimes were a result of her addiction to gambling. He said that she had banned herself from Hollywood Slots before she was indicted, had sought treatment for the disease and regularly attended Gamblers Anonymous meetings.
“She didn’t appear in court as she should have,” Bloomer said, “but she returned from Portugal to deal with this, knowing she probably would be arrested in Boston. The easy thing to do would have been to stay in Portugal. It was the guilt, quite frankly, that made her come back. She couldn’t live with it.”
A man who identified himself only as Fred said he was a member of Faria’s Gamblers Anonymous group. He urged the judge to allow her to repay her victims as part of her recovery.
“I’ve never seen any one person help as many people [in recovery] as Lucy did,” he said, before making a prediction.
“On account of that big, wonderful building down by the river, you’re going to have a lot of people show up here,” he said. “Lucy is not going to be the only one.”
Even though she is married to a 95-year-old man who lives out of state, Faria is expected to be deported after completing her sentence, Campbell said.
The prosecutor said after the sentencing that Faria banned herself from Hollywood Slots and sought out Gamblers Anonymous the day after police interviewed her about the thefts.
In imposing the sentence, Superior Court Justice William Anderson did not require that she pay restitution, and he didn’t impose probation. He said that because of her impending deportation, it was highly unlikely she would be able to repay her victims and that the state has no ability to collect restitution from her once she leaves the country.
“Usually I hear that drugs or alcohol made me do it,” Anderson said. “I don’t really think that gambling is a huge excuse. I’m sentencing [Faria] to three years with none of it suspended. I’m also taking into consideration the fact that this was not a crime of violence, there’s limited space in our prisons and this was a property crime, although a very serious property crime.”
Violent crimes are dealt with more severely than thefts of property under Maine law.
Campbell recommended that Faria be sentenced to six years in prison due to the amount of money involved and the age of her victims. Bloomer urged that she be sentenced to two or three years in prison with all but the three months she’s been at the Penobscot County Jail suspended and two years of probation.
Faria has been held without bail since she returned from Portugal in July.
Hollywood Slots maintains a self-exclusion list for patrons who believe they have a gambling problem, and the state maintains a toll-free problem gambling hot line.
On 9/25/08 at 5:07 AM,
mrclam wrote:
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If this woman had been a town official and stolen $100,000.00, she's have a gotten a year instead of three in the pen.
On 9/25/08 at 6:15 AM,
SunandClouds wrote:
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Why can't people accept responsibility for what they do instead of blame it on someone or something else? This was just a quick way to pick up an extra dollar.
On 9/25/08 at 8:02 AM,
luv2beoutdoor wrote:
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She's married to a 95-year old......can anyone say elder abuse???? This woman is sick!
On 9/25/08 at 8:23 AM,
Tikitorch wrote:
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I do not like the headline of this story! IT WAS NOT THE SLOTS THAT MADE THIS WOMEN DO THIS!!!!
On 9/25/08 at 8:33 AM,
dcdjldprd wrote:
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What about going after Hollywood Slots for part of the restitution? You can bet your bingo dobbers this won't be the last time Hollywood Slots absorbs large sums of stolen money. But I supposed it's not their problem. They don't care where you get the cash, just get it and gamble with it!!!!!!!!!
On 9/25/08 at 8:54 AM,
pjlogan wrote:
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Do we stop snowmobiling becuase some people are dangerous, do we go back to prohibtion beause some people abuse liquor, do we outlaw credit cards becuase some people go in debt. The answer is of course no....on 1.5% of the people are problem gamblers and unfortuantly this women was one of them. On balance the economic revival and jobs created in Bangor by Hollywood slots far outwieghs any of the isolated incidents reported. Funny how these stories always come our during an election when a gambling issue is coming up......is the Bangor Dailey on the casino No mailing list.
On 9/25/08 at 9:11 AM,
Diana22 wrote:
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HA HA. Hollywood Slots IS in the news already!! i love it.
On 9/25/08 at 9:24 AM,
FrankfromBrewer wrote:
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This is the fault of nobody except the person committing the crime. Atlantic City, Vegas, or even Connecticut would probably been the entertainment if the Hollywood Slots facility wasn't here in Bangor. The fault also lies with the courts for only giving her 3 years and probably parole after a month or two. She deserves a minimum of 10 years/K
On 9/25/08 at 9:58 AM,
glenna wrote:
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pjlogan nailed this one right on the head! And BDN is having problems with circulation...maybe it has to do with their "political editorials" being on the front page. People don't like it. Readers expect OBJECTIVITY in news reporting - something we don't get around here very much...and haven't for far too long.
On 9/25/08 at 11:09 AM,
dccrane1952 wrote:
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I agree with the earlier writer. It's time that people start being accountable and more responsible. I've never been a supporter of slots. "Addiction" to gambling is nothing more than failure to take personal responsibility. Like smoking, if you never took that first drag, you probably would not be a smoker. And we all know the potential consequences of smoking. Sorry. Breaking the law and acting irresponsibly is never right and is always wrong!!
On 9/25/08 at 1:22 PM,
dccrane1952 wrote:
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Bravo pjlogan and glenna. That's why I typically get my news from FoxNews.com, "Fair & Balanced". I remember the day when Maine was pretty conservative. My...how times have changed.
On 9/25/08 at 2:15 PM,
matt29 wrote:
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Make Hollywood Slots return the money this woman gambled to the rightful owners
On 9/25/08 at 2:24 PM,
Snakebite6x6x6 wrote:
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Addiction to gambling is not an "illness". Alcoholism is not a "disease". When are we going to start making people responsible for their own actions? I smoke, because i want to, i dont have an illness, "maybe cancer in a few years, but i know the risk, my choice, my problem", I have a habit, nothing more. I used to drink pretty heavy, not so much any more. Why? Not because i was "healed" from my "disease", but because projectile vomiting off porches just didn't seem as fun anymore.
It's nobody's job but your own to take responsibility for your actions. We, as a society, need to stop holding peoples hands like they have some terminal illness, and let them fall down, so they can get back up again.
On 9/25/08 at 2:52 PM,
SteveyDee wrote:
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We report, you decide!!!!!!!!! I never relized that the state is so liberal.
On 9/25/08 at 6:43 PM,
pcme2000 wrote:
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Hey dcdjldprd : What about going after Hollywood Slots, what did they do to cause this women to steal from people. What if the women was a drug addict would you say hey go after the drug dealer to get the money? I mean get real put the blame were the blame needs to be on the women herself!!!
On 9/25/08 at 7:20 PM,
Seltaeb wrote:
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This is such as a thing as personal responsibiltiy. This woman make the choice the steal this money and she made the choice to go to Hollywood Slots. If she had donated the stolen money to a homeless shelter, she would be just as guilty. I'm glad the government is sending her to jail and deporting her.
On 9/25/08 at 9:23 PM,
Johninphilippines wrote:
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Okay...and the BDN already made an article on this yesterday. So much for this now. But, Hollywood Slots is not the entity at fault here. It is the person. So many posters have already made that depiction. You know what? Without spending too much of the State's taxpayers money, once this seriously-ugly woman gets out of jail, and sent back to Portugal, along with her, should be send a US Marshal to ensure her getting off the plane and into the hands of Portuguese authorites, and cancel her from being able to enter the USA again...for any reason, plus institute immediate divorce proceedings from this 95-year old man prior she goes into the can in Maine. What more can I say? Brevity, I guess.
On 9/25/08 at 11:52 PM,
Johninphilippines wrote:
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and, in the "oh, by-the-way-department"...seems that all assisted-living facilities should incorporate into their rules for their residents, that they are to absolutely not give money to anyone within the facility (employees or other residents), and to have controls established for retention of their money, checks, and expensive personal belongings, with accountability in the facility office, and monitored by two primary people, signing logs of what is removed, by whom, time, date, what the item was, when put back and any other items newly entered to the residents safe-box. Not so much administration if it is prformed correctly.
On 9/26/08 at 6:07 AM,
JeffDubay wrote:
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I don’t see what the big deal is here. There are hundreds of lawyers right here in this State doing exactly what she did and getting far less of a sentence than she has.
On 9/26/08 at 11:59 AM,
LincolnMOM wrote:
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OMG Hollywood Slots didn't make HER STEAL THE MONEY!!!! DUH..she is a thief and what she did with the money is her business. She must be charged for THEFT, and that is it, why deport her???after she does her time??. Her addictions are her own personal demons. Leave Hollywood Slots out of this they don't MAKE people go there.
On 9/26/08 at 5:32 PM,
sectar wrote:
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So I guess if she was taking the money and buying scratch tickets with it, Governor Baldacci would have pulled his $20 scratch tickets from all the stores? Come on!!!! Get in off the tip of that right wing before you fall into the blue yonder.
On 9/30/08 at 7:00 PM,
geepah25 wrote:
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it is very obvious that most of the people making comments on here do not fully understand ADDICTION! ...even the judge refused to compare it to drugs....I am a recovering compulsive gambler and I understand it....I will share a very interesting saying I heard one time about gambling and it is...."Slots are the cocaine to the gamblers brain"....recoveriy is about taking personal responsability and making right your wrongs...among other things....of course what Lucy did was wrong, but it isn't just her fault. The blame lies on both ends...the other being the companies themselves. Gambling addiction is like a virus...it takes over your thoughts, judgments, decisions, your whole life! Casinos manipulate the human brain with bells, whistles, promise of jackpots....they purposely black out windows and take down the clocks so u have no concept of time, they provide alcohol to lower your judgment, they even pump pure oxygen in to keep u wide awake! It's true, do the research folks! ....I led a very normal, unaddicted life before I started gambling, and like a snowball it got bigger and bigger...I used gambling as a replacement to alcohol then combined them....I made the choice to go into hollywood slots, and I also made the choice to sign myself out....but only after nearly losing my life as a result.....They are not raking in 2 million (approx) a day from unaddicted people who go in with 20 and then leave, it is ruined lives, maxed out cards and home equity lines, wiped out savings, bad checks, stolen money, the list goes on and on! I am sure it will come as no surprise to some reading this, but a former employee who worked in surveillance at HS, told me that the security staff was to "watch out" for me for alcohol/gambling addiction....according to him, I apparently stumbled a few times and was going there too often....Here is my main point in ref to responsibility.....If hollywood slots(Penn National Gaming) cares so much about responsible gambing as they state they do in words, then why do their actions contradict these statements?? Their admission that I had a problem comes from their action of "watching out" for me while I gambled in their establishment....Why couldn't someone diplomatically approach me and say, "Sir we just want you to know we appreciate your patronage and also want you to know these are services we have available"....noone ever did, perhaps if they had I would have seen a different light....words and actions, actions and words....as a former MBNA employee I understand how corporations work and penn national is no different...they saw how much money I was putting in there.....Lucy owned up to what she did, she came back from portugal and was not extradicted...she did the right thing....she is a good person who made a mistake....plain and simple! ....the blame is 50/50 end of story! ...educate yourselves folks before making such harsh judgments! thanks :-)
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