Former Boothbay attorney Franklin Poe, 55, pleaded guilty during a hearing on Sept. 7 in Lincoln County Superior Court to theft in excess of $10,000, the highest level of theft in Maine law, and to the misuse of property entrusted to him.
During the same hearing, Justice Andrew Horton sentenced Poe to four years in prison with all but 15 months suspended and three years probation.
Poe may also face a restitution fine of up to $70,000. The exact amount of the fine, if one is levied against him, will be determined at a future hearing.
Poe was the trustee of the Josephine Davis Day Revocable Trust from 1995 to Jan. 2, 2008. During that time, he allegedly wrote himself substantial checks from the trust funds and failed to provide adequate explanation of the miscellaneous expenses he was charging, Assistant Attorney General Leanne Robbin said.
The trust was fed by the revenues from the Trailing Yew Inn, a seasonal bed and breakfast on Monhegan Island founded in 1926 by Josephine Day. Under the terms of the trust, the net income of the inn was to be distributed to Day’s four brothers-in-law: Almon Day, Cecil Day, Basil Day and Donald Day.
For the first few years, Poe provided annual financial reports and made payments to the beneficiaries of the trust, according to the State’s sentencing memorandum.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the payments Poe made to the beneficiaries shrank and the amount he paid to himself grew, with no relation to changes in the inn’s income, according to the State.
After 2001, Poe stopped providing financial reports and after March 2003 made no payments to the beneficiaries, according to the State.
Beginning in 2003, Poe stopped contacting the beneficiaries, and did not respond to repeated attempts by the beneficiaries to contact him. “By the summer of 2006, Poe’s telephone and fax had been disconnected,” according to the State.
Poe may have taken as much as $70,000 in excess of reasonable fees for his work with the Trust, Robbin said.
“It’s typical elderly fraud,” Robbin said at the sentencing.
Poe was disbarred in February 2009, after he failed to appear in judicial court to defend himself against the allegations that he stole from the trust.
Following his disbarment, Poe left Maine suddenly and without notice to his wife on March 28, 2009, said Lt. Mike Murphy with the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office. She reported him missing on April 1 and on April 7 his truck was found abandoned in the parking lot at the Shaw’s Supermarket in Brunswick.
Missing person notices were published in many newspapers and were posted on the Internet seeking information about Poe’s whereabouts.
On May 1, Poe called the LCSO from a phone number in Salt Lake City to inform them that he was not missing and was fine, but didn’t give any other information at that time, Murphy said.
Less than a week later, when he attempted to apply for a job at Meals on Wheels, it was confirmed that he was in Salt Lake City. A representative of the company saw the missing persons report online, connected it with Poe’s application and called the LCSO, Murphy said.
The Attorney General’s office was able to find Poe using the phone records of the number that Poe provided to Meals on Wheels in his application, Robbin said.
Poe, who had been indicted in absentia for his crimes, was then arrested in Salt Lake City as a fugitive and arrangements were made to transport him back to Maine for trial.
After he spent eight months in jail awaiting his trial – time that will be credited towards his sentence – Poe pleaded guilty.
At the sentencing, Poe said he still did not believe he was guilty, but was pleading guilty on the recommendation of his attorney, Justin Andrus. The State’s evidence was sufficient to convict Poe at trial, so it was in his best interest to plead guilty, Andrus said.
“It’s something I have to do,” Poe said.
Prior to being sentenced, Poe read a statement chronicling his descent into depression during the time that he committed the crime and the suffering he’s gone through since being arrested.
“I was flabbergasted when I was arrested,” Poe told the court. “I knew that I had stopped performing my duty as trustee, but theft surprised me.
“It wasn’t until reviewing the State’s [evidence] that I realized what the State’s case was all about. It was like I got punched in the gut.
“I never meant to do anything of the sort,” he said.
Towards the end of his time as trustee, Poe said he became depressed. “It was like I fell into a black pit,” he said. Once he left Maine, he contemplated suicide often, he said.
While living in Salt Lake City, Poe said his life started to turn around. “I was beginning to come out of it when I got arrested.”
Poe said he hoped to be an example to other attorneys and to others dealing with depression. He spoke about the importance of being proactive in seeking help.
“I lost most of my teeth from not taking care of myself during years of depression. Now I’ve lost my freedom, lost my marriage,” he said.
Poe’s wife divorced him after he left Maine without notice, a fact of which Poe was not aware until Robbin told him when he returned to Maine.
“I don’t need any more punishment to know the cost of failure and the value of my freedom,” Poe said. “I just ask that you judge me based on my whole life, not just this one period of despair.”
Prior to this incident, Poe had no criminal history.
The court also heard via telephone from Poe’s sister, Fran Gross of Michigan, who characterized Poe as a “kind and gentle soul” and said he was “earnest, sincere and humble. He’s a family oriented person,” she said.
Gross informed the court of a history of brain-related health problems in Poe’s family. Several members of their family have had brain tumors, one of which led to significant changes in the person’s character, similar to the changes Poe went through, she said.
“He did not do anything with malice in his heart,” Gross said. At the time “he was simply incapable of anything but the simplest tasks.”
Prior to pleading guilty, Poe underwent a court-ordered psychological evaluation and was found competent to stand trial and be held accountable for his actions, Robbin said.
When Justice Horton imposed the sentence – which matched the State’s recommendation – he said that did so for two reasons: Poe’s crime was “not a single impulsive act”; and because it “involved a crime committed by someone in a position of trust.”
“Mr. Poe presented an account that has to arouse compassion in all of us, but I need to focus as well on the impact of this crime upon the victims,” Horton said.
Horton said he also intended the sentence to send a message: “The message needs to go out to everyone who thinks we have a double standard for lawyers – that is not the case.”
James Day, the son of one of the beneficiaries, was present at the sentencing. After it was over, he said that the Trailing Yew Inn has since been sold, and the proceeds from the sale have given the beneficiaries something to live on.
“They were all men of very modest means, and the money from the inn meant a great deal to them,” Day said.
Day said his reaction to the sentencing was “truly mixed.”
“We didn’t know anything about the brain issues,” he said. “It would have been easier to think about him as just evil, but like most people, he’s probably not. But then I think about my father and uncles living on next to nothing.”
Day said that his family’s experiences with Poe did not agree with Poe’s sister’s characterization. “Everywhere that my family had contact with him, he was mean and dismissive. He was arrogant,” Day said.
A personal accountant in Biddeford, Day said he can sympathize with Poe’s struggles with depression.
“When I was getting divorced, I was getting [it] kicked out of me,” Day said. “But I didn’t steal anything from anyone.”
