[MSN] BRISTOL - A lawyer who sits on the Tiverton Planning Board is facing a charge of felony shoplifting after allegedly stealing an oil painting valued at $1, 800 from a Bristol antiques center.

[MSN]

Tiverton lawyer charged in art theft

01:00 AM EDT on Thursday, March 27, 2008

By Alex Kuffner

Journal Staff Writer

BRISTOL - A lawyer who sits on the Tiverton Planning Board is facing a
charge of felony shoplifting after allegedly stealing an oil painting valued
at $1,800 from a Bristol antiques center.

Frederick C. Stachura, a member of the board since last year, appeared Feb.
27 in District Court, Providence, on one count of larceny over $500. He is
due back in court for a pretrial conference April 30 before his arraignment
in Superior Court in Providence.

Stachura, 48, of 4089 Main Rd., Tiverton, is accused of stealing the
painting on Feb. 21 from the Wooden Horse Gallery, 651 Metacom Ave. The
alleged theft was not immediately noticed, but it was captured on a video
surveillance system in the store.

Stachura, a preservation consultant and lawyer, is a partner in the
Bristol-based Historic Collaborative. He has previously worked as the
projects director at the Providence Preservation Society and was a board
member of Coggeshall Farm, a living history museum in Bristol.

He has also taught classes in historic preservation at Roger Williams
University, in Bristol, but is currently not teaching there. Brian Clark, a
spokesman for the university, said he could not comment on Stachura's
employment because it is a personnel matter.

Stachura was appointed to the Tiverton Planning Board in March 2007 to fill
the unexpired term of J.P. Wehle who resigned. Stachura's term expires in
June, according to the Tiverton town clerk's office.

After discovering that the small framed painting - a still-life of red
flowers by A.D. Schuler - was missing from the Wooden Horse Gallery, store
manager Dennis Mertel reviewed the surveillance recordings and found footage
of the theft.

On the recording, at about 2:11 p.m. on Feb. 21, a man walks into the
antiques center and goes immediately to the aisle where the Schuler painting
is hanging. With his back to one of the surveillance cameras, he lifts the
painting off the wall and places it inside his coat. After browsing other
parts of the store, he leaves a few minutes later.

Mertel and store owner Nancy Pritchard were in another aisle rearranging
merchandise when the incident occurred. Several days later, Pritchard
noticed that the Schuler painting was gone even though it had not been sold,
Mertel said yesterday.

Mertel said that he recognized the man on the recording, because he
suspected that the same man had stolen a pair of antique wick cutters from
the store three months earlier. At that time, the man had bought a stool
using a credit card. Mertel said he checked the receipt and found the card
was in the name of Stachura.

After contacting the Bristol Police Department, he gave officers a
photograph of the suspect from the surveillance system and passed along
Stachura's name.

Stachura was asked to come in to the Bristol police station for questioning
Feb. 27. He was charged later that day.

This is not Stachura's first brush with the law.

On May 8, 1995, he pleaded guilty to one count of felony larceny and was
placed on probation for one year, according to Journal archives. In that
case, he stole 50 law books, valued at $5,000 from the library at the Kent
County Court House.

Stachura took the books - stamped "Kent County Law Library" - between Dec.
1, 1992, and June 30, 1993, then sold them to his law firm in Boston,
claiming they had been liquidated by the state as surplus.

The law firm, after paying Stachura for the books, learned they were stolen
when it made a call to the Rhode Island Department of Library Services. The
firm subsequently returned the books to the courthouse library.

Stachura could not be reached for comment.

As for the Schuler painting, the police retrieved it from Stachura's garage.
It's now hanging back on the wall at the Wooden Horse Gallery.

akuffner at projo.com

http://www.projo.com/