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| Members of the Risoldi family at a 2016 hearing |
Senior Judge Thomas Gavin announced he will issue his order next month on a petition filed by an attorney representing Claire Risoldi, 70, seeking to delay his client’s reporting date until after a federal appeal is heard on the matter.
Defense attorney Jack McMahon filed the federal petition in February, days after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court rejected a request to hear an appeal of the contempt finding for Risoldi, who Gavin found violated a court order barring her from contacting prosecution witnesses in her insurance fraud case.
McMahon told the court he filed the federal petition because he believes the contempt finding violated his client’s federal and state constitutional rights, including her right to participate in her defense. If the federal court agrees, it would vacate the contempt finding — and the jail sentence, which is why he is seeking the delay.
In July, the Pennsylvania Superior Court issued a decision finding Gavin did not abuse his discretion in finding Risoldi was in “indirect or direct contempt of court” for using the subpoena process to skirt a no-contact order with witnesses in the fraud case.
The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s prosecutor David Augenbraun countered there is no chance a federal appeal will be successful. He asked the judge to set a turn-in date of 48 hours after the court receives formal notice from the state supreme court of its rejection.
The AG’s office filed fraud and related charges against Claire and other members of the Risoldi family in January 2015 in connection with insurance claims from an October 2013 fire that heavily damaged the family’s 10-acre estate, Clairemont. Claire Risoldi also faces additional charges in separate witness intimidation cases.
Also Monday, Claire Risoldi and her son Carl, 46, of Buckingham, who is also accused of participating in the alleged 2013 insurance fraud scheme, each formally rejected plea agreements offered by the attorney general’s office. Augenbraun declined comment on what the agreements were offered to the pair. The two are scheduled for separate trials next January and March.
The remaining two defendants — Carl’s sister, Carla Risoldi, 51, of Solebury and his wife, Sheila Risoldi, 46, of Buckingham — each were approved Monday to enter into a special trial diversion program for nonviolent, first-time offenders called Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition.
If the women complete the program successfully in nine months, the criminal charges against them, including corrupt organizations, theft, insurance fraud, forgery and conspiracy, will be dismissed and their records expunged. A re-arrest, however, would result in the original charges being reinstated. The women were also served subpoenas and agreed to testify, if called, for the state in the upcoming trials against Carl and Claire Risoldi.
The AG’s Office also on Monday agreed to release more than $72,000 from Risoldi accounts it froze to pay the back taxes and fees on the Clairemont property in the 5700 block of Stonyhill Road, which have not been paid since 2015. Gavin issued a stay on three other properties the state contends the family indirectly owns until the trials are completed. The county is owed more than $92,000 in back taxes and fees on those properties.
The properties, valued at $2.3 million, are among the assets the state seized — along with $2.5 million in vehicles and cash — to preserve them as potential sources of restitution in the fraud case.
The judge also agreed to release to the family a 2014 Jeep Cherokee and a 2015 GMC Yukon, which were seized and $100,000 from the seized assets.
Gavin is overseeing the Risoldi fraud case and related matters after all Bucks County judges recused themselves in 2015, when the criminal charges were filed against the family, which has close ties with the county’s Republican Party.
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