Police: Thefts targeted disabled
Former manager of group home charged
By Julie Manganis, Staff writer The Salem News April 1, 2010
SALEM — The former manager of a group home for disabled adults has been charged with stealing money from three residents' bank accounts.
Ryan Michalowski, 31, of 3 Story Terrace, Marblehead, worked for Northeast Arc as a house manager for the group home at 184 Lafayette St. in Salem until last fall, when the alleged thefts came to light.
A series of questionable transactions was discovered in the check registers of the men, who had entrusted their checkbooks to be safeguarded by program managers.
Starting in July, Michalowski, who had worked at the home for three years, allegedly began forging the men's signatures on checks made out to cash, with various notations in the subject line, according to a report by Salem police Detective William Jennings.
The alleged victims were all developmentally disabled men, ages 47, 59 and 62.
One alleged victim's check was supposedly for a new $80 radio, but that man had no radio when police checked. Nor did he have a new television that another check, for $250, was supposedly spent on. Another check, for $50, drawn on that 59-year-old man's account, purported to be for "dancing lessons."
Some checks indicated they were for a new coat for one alleged victim, new summer clothes for another and a trip to the Topsfield Fair. But police say that's not what the money was used for.
That 62-year-old "did not have plans to attend the fair," Jennings noted in the report.
More than $700 in checks were cashed against the three men's bank accounts.
One of the men earned a modest wage working at Heritage Industries, a program that employs people with disabilities, according to the police report.
Police say Michalowski also forged the signature of a supervisor who was supposed to sign off on any entries in the checkbook register.
Copies of the checks police say Michalowski fraudulently wrote have some signatures in childlike, block letters, a mixture of uppercase and lowercase that appeared almost identical for two of the victims. A third victim's checks were signed in shaky-looking handwriting with some backward letters.
The alleged thefts were discovered by Michalowski's supervisor after an audit. When Michalowski heard that an audit was under way, he stopped showing up for work, police say.
His supervisor, Andrew Browning, contacted the state's Disabled Persons Protection Commission. They contacted the district attorney, who forwarded the complaint to Salem police.
Michalowski was arrested on a warrant.
Neither Browning nor Jerry McCarthy, director of Northeast Arc (formerly North Shore Arc), returned calls for comment yesterday afternoon.
On Tuesday, Michalowski pleaded not guilty to a total of 51 counts, including one count of larceny by check of more than $250, 15 counts of larceny by check of $250 or less, three counts of larceny from a person over 60 or disabled, 16 counts of forgery and 16 counts of passing a forged check.
He was released on $250 cash bail and is due back in court May 5.
