Former Bristol County attorney avoids prison time after embezzling over $52,000 from elderly man

A former Easton woman who swindled an elderly incompetent man out of more than $52,000 was convicted of Fiduciary Embezzlement last week, Bristol County District Attorney Thomas M. Quinn III announced.

Lisa Robinson Pircio Heino, who currently resides in Newport, RI, was appointed by the Essex County Probate Court in late January of 2017 as the elderly Haverhill man’s fiduciary conservator. As conservator, Heino took control of the victim’s bank account and almost immediately began to steal money.

On March 24, 2017, Heino embezzled $9,875.00 from the victim’s account, falsely claiming reimbursement for a MassHealth application that she never filed. Credible evidence established that after July 2017, Heino had no contact with the victim, who lived, and continues to live, in a nursing home.

On November 3, 2017, Heino paid $19,382.47 towards her home mortgage with funds embezzled from the victim’s account.

On November 19, 2017, Heino, without authority, deposited $6,000.00 from the victim’s account into her personal account at Bank of America.

On December 12, 2017, Heino, without authority, deposited $10,987.00 from the victim’s account into her personal account at Bank of America.

On January 13, 2018, Heino, without authority, deposited $3,800.00 from the victim’s account into her personal account at Bank of America.

And between February 1, 2018, and May 3, 2018, Heino, without authority, made an additional five deposits totaling $1,975.00 from the victim’s account into her personal account at Bank of America.

Heino, as a court-appointed fiduciary, embezzled $52,019.47 from the victim. On April 25, 2018, the Probate & Family Court removed her as Conservator and replaced her with another attorney. She was removed after it came to the court’s attention that the victim’s nursing home was not being paid. The defendant also stole funds from at least one other protected person as a court-appointed fiduciary and she pled guilty in federal court for that behavior, and served 60 days in federal prison. She reportedly stole $74,000 in benefits from a disabled U.S. military veteran. The crimes all occurred while she was living in Easton.

During a sentencing hearing held last week in Fall River Superior Court before Judge Raffi Yessayan, Heino apologized for her actions and accepted responsibility for her conduct upon being confronted by law enforcement.

Assistant District Attorney Michael Scott, who heads up DA Quinn’s Financial Crimes Unit, argued that Heino should serve two years in the county jail and be ordered to pay full restitution to the victim in this case. Judge Yessayan, however, placed the defendant on probation for three years and ordered full restitution be paid. She paid $18,000 in restitution last week and must pay $500 per week until all the money is repaid or be found in violation of the terms of her probation.

“I am pleased the defendant was held accountable for breaching her duty of trust to an elderly victim who she had a legal responsibility to care for. While we thought a committed jail sentence was appropriate, she has agreed to, and been ordered to pay back more than $50,000 to the victim. This case highlights the importance of my office’s financial crimes unit, which is holding people accountable in difficult cases,” District Attorney Quinn said.