Restitution hearing held to determine value of stolen estate property
As part of a pre-sentence investigation, a Fayette County judge held a hearing Tuesday to determine the restitution due in the case of a West Virginia woman convicted earlier this month of stealing her siblings’ belongings from their mother’s estate.
Marlene Wesolowsky, 49, of Morgantown was found guilty of theft by failure to make required disposition of funds, which, because it involves an amount over $2,000, is a felony. Judge Nancy D. Vernon heard testimony regarding sports memorabilia, knives, dolls, jewelry and a coat and must assign a dollar value when she orders restitution at Wesolowsky’s May 8 sentencing.
Wesolowsky’s brother, Michael Mehall of Scottdale, testified at trial that a baseball card collection he started as a child and left at his mother’s Hopwood home came up missing after their mother, Rosemary Mehall, died in 2004.
Wesolowsky, as executrix of Rosemary Mehall’s estate, was responsible for dividing assets among six siblings, and Michael Mehall testified at trial that Wesolowsky never produced the $146,000 worth of cards.
Vernon, who qualified Michael Mehall as an expert in the valuation of baseball cards for his trial testimony, accepted his estimation of the value of the collection and said she will include that in the restitution figure.
Assistant District Attorney Doug Sepic called Richard Bower as an expert in buying, selling and collecting sports memorabilia to assign a value to a baseball and bat signed by Roberto Clemente. At trial, Ernie Mehall testified that he attended a Pirates game as a child and a family friend arranged to have the ball and bat signed for him personally.
Bower said based on his research, the ball would be worth between $1,500 and $1,900, and the bat would be worth $2,000 to $2,500.
Under cross examination by Wesolowsky’s attorney, David Kaiser, Bower said he had no photo to help determine the values, only Ernie Mehall’s word and that even if the items are not in near-mint condition as described, they would still be valued at the low end of his estimate.
Ralene Debord of Wexford offered testimony about the value of the remaining items.
According to Debord, the knives were purchased by her for her father as Christmas, Father’s Day and birthday gifts. She estimated each of the presentation Case knife sets to be worth $100 to $200 each and said she purchased at least 27 sets, 23 of which have not been accounted for.
Debord told the court that the pieces of missing jewelry included a Tiffany necklace she valued at $600, a $300 emerald ring, a $100 set of gold earrings and a $1,000 diamond cluster ring.
Another item the siblings claimed was missing from the estate was a mink coat. Debord said she had a very similar coat that was purchased for $15,000, but based on the age of her mother’s coat, she estimated the value to be closer to $5,000.
Debord testified that a coin collection missing from Rosemary Mehall’s estate included Morgan silver dollar coins that were given to each of the siblings by their grandfather for Christmas each year for over 15 years. Each child received 10 coins every year, Debord said. Sepic and Kaiser agreed to a value of $9,000 for the collection.
Finally, Debord testified that thousands of dollars worth of collectible dolls were missing, including four original, hand-signed Cabbage Patch dolls still in the boxes, which she said were worth about $300 each.
Kaiser asked Debord how she arrived at the estimated values for the items, and Debord said she conducted Internet research. He asked her if she had receipts for any of the items, and Debord said she did not.
“I didn’t know it was my responsibility to obtain a receipt,” Debord said. “It should have been properly inventoried.”