WINDSOR – State police carted off boxes of records from Windsor Town Hall yesterday morning at the request of the Attorney General’s Office.
Jane Young, chief of the Criminal Bureau, said the troopers were executing a search warrant obtained by the Attorney General’s Office to collect evidence in an ongoing investigation into accounting irregularities by the former tax collector, Beverly Hines.
Last year, the Department of Revenue Administration and the AG began investigating when a group of residents in town found serious discrepancies in the handwritten records kept by then-tax collector Hines.
The DRA ordered the town to hire an independent accounting firm to conduct an audit of the tax record. The audit conducted by Melanson Heath was released last month and revealed a number of accounting irregularities and an inconsistency in the application of interest and liens for overdue taxes.
In addition, an estimated $45,000 to $90,000 in collected revenues cannot be traced to bank deposits or otherwise accounted for.
The AG’s office is currently conducting an investigation to determine whether the irregularities were the result of errors or malfeasance on the part of the former tax collector and other town officials.
Young said yesterday that the execution of the search warrant to confiscate records from Windsor Town Hall was simply part of an investigation that is still “in its early to middle stages.”
“Nobody’s been charged at this point,” said Young. “This is just another step in the investigation process.”
Young said her office petitioned the court to have the affidavits and search warrants sealed, and the court agreed.
“In this case, sealing the documents is necessary to protect the ongoing investigation,” she said.
In the meantime, residents Charlotte and Everett Chamberlain and Donald and Irene Palmer are suing Hines, the town and officials both past and present over the accounting irregularities. According to the Chamberlains and Palmers, Hines — with either the collusion or negligence of the other town officials — allowed friends and family members to skip out on paying taxes without any penalties.
Supporters of Hines, however, say the former tax collector did the best she could as an unskilled volunteer for the town and is guilty only of making mistakes.
The state got involved after the Palmers, Chamberlains and other residents, calling themselves the Windsor Coalition of Taxpayers, began questioning the handling of tax revenue.
In 2007, the coalition requested copies of tax receipts and records from Hines. When Hines refused to turn over her handwritten records, the coalition sued the town in Hillsborough County Superior Court, and the town was ordered to comply with the request.
Hines resigned in 2007.
Late last month, nearly a third of the town’s population of 250 had signed a petition urging the court to force the Chamberlains and Palmers to pay the legal costs stemming from the lawsuit they’ve filed against the town.