Probation terminated for man who embezzled $841,000 from Saint Bernard School

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Taylor Hartz, The Day, New London, Conn.
·4 min read
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Apr. 6—A 56-year-old man charged with violating the terms of his probation after embezzling more than $841,000 from Saint Bernard School in Montville — and only paying back $12,000 — won't face any more prison time.

Salvatore Licitra, now of Pulaski, N.Y., had his probation terminated in New London Superior Court after paying off an additional $8,000 last week of the $841,000 he embezzled from the school. He had previously paid about $4,000.

The remainder was paid back to the school by Bank of America, where he had deposited the stolen money, according to New London Superior Court Judge Hillary B. Strackbein.

Paying back the $841,000 he embezzled was a condition of Licitra's probation after he served six years in prison. He violated his probation in 2019 by failing to make $200 monthly payments toward that restitution and stealing from a department store in New York, where he moved in 2015.

Strackbein terminated Licitra's probation last Thursday after he made two payments to the court to pay off the remaining $12,000 that wasn't paid back by the bank and was still owed to the private Catholic school where Licitra once worked.

Strackbein said that she didn't see any reason to continue Licitra's probation after the school received the remainder of the money they had lost.

"The main reason for the probation was to pay back Saint Bernard," said Strackbein. "Our interest was for Saint Bernard to be made whole."

Strackbein said that she also took the COVID-19 pandemic into consideration when deciding not to sentence Licitra to more jail time. She said that due to the pandemic, she has been trying to minimize the number of non-violent offenders she sends to prison. Licitra, she said, has health conditions that would put him at risk if he was sent back to prison and contracted COVID-19.

The judge said that sentencing him to prison time for violating his probation would have also required a violation of probation hearing, which the court hasn't been holding due to the pandemic. By terminating his probation on the condition that he paid the remainder of the $12,000 the school hadn't received, the school received the money they were owed, she said.

"The way I feel right now is that this was in the best interest of the victim Saint Bernard," said Strackbein.

Licitra, whose last known address was a campground in Pulaski, N.Y., just below the Canadian border, was convicted in 2008 of embezzling from the school where he was employed.

While working at the Catholic high school in Uncasville, he diverted checks into a "Sunshine Camp" account that he had opened in 2002 at the Bank of America without the knowledge of his superiors.

In September 2008, Judge Susan B. Handy sentenced Licitra to 16 years in prison, nine of which were suspended. At the time of his conviction, Licitra had a criminal history dating back to the 1980s. At his sentencing, Handy remarked that he had been a thief his entire life.

Licitra was released from the Department of Correction in 2014 and began a five-year probationary period.

In March 2016, less than a year after he moved to New York, Licitra was charged with first-degree falsifying business records and petty larceny after he went into a Kohl's department store and picked up a $130 comforter. Without paying for the comforter, he brought it to customer service and returned it for a refund credit.

He pleaded guilty to second-degree falsifying business records and was sentenced to a one-year conditional discharge.

He was charged in October 2019 in Connecticut with violating the terms of his probation for being re-arrested in New York and failing to make payments toward his restitution. According to an affidavit, he had by that time only paid $2,000 toward his restitution and had not made a payment since April 2016.

His attorney, Kevin Barrs, said Licitra is "really happy to have it behind him."

"I think he honestly feels bad about what he did," said Barrs. "He moved away from here and hopefully his life will be better now."

t.hartz@theday.com

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