Date: Fri 05-Mar-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

crime-Trudeau-jail

Full Text:

Trudeau Ordered To Serve Jail Sentence

BY ANDREW GOROSKO

Local businessman William A. Trudeau, Jr, 35, will be serving a 30-day jail

sentence in connection with a variety of bad check charges against him dating

back to 1996.

A Danbury Superior Court judge handed down the sentence February 26, after

Trudeau agreed to plead guilty to a felony count in exchange for the state

dropping prosecutions against him on multiple charges.

The actual sentence given Trudeau was a five-year prison term, suspended after

he serves 30 days, plus one year of probation, according to court documents.

The probation includes Trudeau making thousands of dollars of restitution to

the various individuals and companies who were the victims of his bad checks.

As a condition of his probation, Trudeau was ordered not to write any more bad

checks. Trudeau is the proprietor of Trudeau's Service Center at 49 South Main

Street.

Had Trudeau gone to trial on the many charges which were pending against him

and had he been found guilty of all those charges, he would have been subject

to much more serious penalties.

Trudeau was ordered to turn himself over to authorities April 1 to begin

serving his 30-day jail sentence.

The charges which were addressed in court, February 26, concerned:

third-degree larceny and second-degree forgery stemming from an October 1997

incident in Trumbull; second-degree larceny and second-degree forgery in

connection with a January 1998 incident in Trumbull; third-degree larceny and

issuing a bad check stemming from a September 1996 incident in Newtown;

second-degree forgery and third-degree larceny in connection with a March 1997

Newtown incident; third-degree larceny and issuing a bad check stemming from

an August 1996 Newtown incident; and two counts each of issuing a bad check

and third-degree larceny stemming form a September 1996 incident in Newtown.

Trudeau was ordered to pay $1,989 restitution to Stop and Shop Supermarkets;

$6,800 to People's Bank; $3,350 to Barnum Insurance Company; and $3,000 to a

tobacco company, among others.

Mr Trudeau also had been charged in connection with non-payment of his

employees in 1996.

Besides the charges handled in court February 26, Mr Trudeau has been involved

with other problems in recent months.

In December, a judge ordered him to remove multiple illegal signs from

Trudeau's Service Center at 49 South Main Street and fined him $12,000 for

sign violations. Last fall, the state Department of Motor Vehicles removed

Trudeau's automotive repairer's license for various violations.

In January 1998, Trudeau was the victim of a drive-by shooting at his

business. Police haven't solved that crime in which Trudeau was shot in the

leg in the nighttime by someone traveling by in a moving vehicle.