Judge Approves Probation For Newtown Oil Official

By Andrew Gorosko

A Danbury Superior Court judge has granted a Newtown Oil Company official a special form of probation in a criminal prosecution against her for issuing three bad checks to a Meriden home heating fuel distributor.

Judge Patrick Carroll on June 11 granted Heather M. Bliss, 28, of Westport “accelerated rehabilitation” in the case involving Ms Bliss’s signing three Newtown Oil Company checks issued to Tuxis-Ohr Fuel of Meriden. The checks, which were issued in January 2002, bounced due to insufficient funds.

Newtown Oil had run up an account balance of $93,418 with Tuxis-Ohr, with the amount of returned checks in the case being $95,000, according to court papers.

Ms Bliss formerly worked as the office manager at Newtown Oil at 47-49 South Main Street. Ms Bliss also was the corporate secretary of Newtown Oil, which went out of business last December. Ms Bliss is married to William A. Trudeau, Jr, who state officials believe operated Newtown Oil.

Newtown Oil has been the focus of a state investigation into the firm’s failure last winter to honor prepaid home heating fuel delivery contracts with approximately 1,400 customers, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars of customer losses. Newtown Oil failed to deliver approximately one million gallons of home heating fuel that it was committed to deliver under the terms of the prepaid delivery contracts.

State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has sued Newtown Oil in seeking to recover that lost money for customers. Mr Blumenthal has said he may also pursue criminal charges against Newtown Oil.

Newtown police charged Ms Bliss last January 10 with three counts of issuing bad checks to Tuxis-Ohr. Tuxis-Ohr had stopped providing heating fuel to Newtown Oil one year earlier, on January 28, 2002. Ms Bliss pleaded “not guilty” to the three charges on March 6.

The arrest warrant in the case states that Ms Bliss issued the three checks knowing that bank funds would not be available to cover the checks.

A court investigation into Ms Bliss’s background stemming from her application for accelerated rehabilitation indicates that she has no FBI criminal record and no known past convictions. She submitted letters of reference to the court in seeking the special probation. Ms Bliss’s family reportedly has made restitution for the bad checks.

Under the accelerated rehabilitation program, a first offender enters a plea of “not guilty,” and if the defendant meets the terms of the probation, such as not committing a crime and providing community service, the case is dismissed after a specified period.

Judge Carroll decided that Ms Bliss must provide 100 hours of community service during the two-year term of the probation.

On June 4, state Department of Revenue Services (DRS) agents charged Ms Bliss with four separate counts of issuing bad checks for allegedly writing four bounced checks for state tax payments. Those bad check charges stem from three bad checks that had been issued to DRS by Newtown Oil, and one bad check that had been issued to DRS by Newtown Tire and Service. Newtown Tire and Service also was located at 47-49 South Main Street.

Mr Trudeau currently is free on bond, awaiting sentencing in connection with unrelated federal convictions involving failure to pay payroll taxes and fraudulently obtaining loans.