By Kelly Wolfe
Posted October 10, 2003
FORT PIERCE -- A condo association manager
accused of taking more than $100,000 from the till was entitled to some
compensation, but not all she was paid, a St. Lucie County Circuit judge
ordered Thursday.
Circuit Judge Ben L. Bryan said that Francine
Macchitelli should have received $99,304 for the work she did as condo
manager for the Evergreen at Port St. Lucie Condominium Association from
1997 until 2000.
Macchitelli, however, was paid more than
$132,000 in all, according to the order. So, she has to give $33,279.33
back.
"The association is pleased," said David
B. Earle, who represented Evergreen. "I think the judge probably considered
she had actually done work, and he tried to find a balance. We feel very
comfortable with that."
Bryan also dismissed Macchitelli's countersuit,
seeking another $315,000 in back pay and future earnings she never received
because she was fired.
A local telephone number for Macchitelli
was not in service. A message left Thursday for James Macchitelli, who
represented his mother in court, was not returned.
Macchitelli is the second Evergreen condo
manager since the mid-1990s accused of stealing money.
In 1996, Donald Nembhard took $100,000
and ran to Jamaica. He was caught, sentenced to 15 years' probation and
ordered to pay the money back.
The order in the Macchitelli case was filed
a little more than three months after a raucous five-day bench trial, where
Bryan once threatened to place a deputy between counsel tables if attorneys
didn't stop bickering.
Testimony centered on whether Francine
Macchitelli took money from the Evergreen Condominium's owners association
and used it for her own expenses -- everything from plane tickets to pantyhose,
according to court records. Or was she entitled to that money as an association
employee?
Macchitelli argued that she stepped into
her post as association manager in 1996 -- after Nembhard -- and worked
for free to get things in order.
She said her expenditures were approved
by a vote at a May 13, 1998, board meeting -- including a $60,000-a-year
salary retroactive to when Macchitelli became president in 1996.
Criminal charges against Macchitelli were
dropped in October 2000 because association records showed her salary and
expenses had been approved.
Board members, however, said there could
not have been a quorum at that summer meeting because most of the people
who inhabit the 298 units head North as soon as temperatures rise.
"A lot of this was driven by the fact she
wanted her day in court and believed she was owed money," Earle said. |