The co-owner of a gasoline distribution company accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the owner of a North Pocono supermarket and gas station has won again in his bid to avoid criminal prosecution.
The state Superior Court said Bill's ShopRite owner William Bracey paid $500,000 to State Petroleum Distributors for gasoline in August 2008, and received only $53,278 worth of fuel, but never paid the money directly to Joseph Occhipinti, who had solicited his business.
The result is Mr. Occhipinti cannot be viewed as committing a crime, even though he is a minority shareholder in the gasoline distribution company, the court ruled in upholding a lower court ruling from April 2012 by Lackawanna County Judge Vito P. Geroulo.
A magisterial district judge ruled in November 2011 that there was enough evidence to send a theft charge against Mr. Occhipinti, 53, of Madison Twp., to county court for further action.
Judge Geroulo disagreed and dismissed the charges.
In its ruling, the Superior Court acknowledged Mr. Occhipinti, acting on State Petroleum's behalf, approached Mr. Bracey in February 2008 and offered him a chance to lock in existing prices by prepaying for gasoline. Mr. Bracey gave Mr. Occhipinti a $500,000 check, which was deposited in a State Petroleum account.
"The fundamental problem with the evidence presented by the (prosecution) in this case is that it fails to establish that Occhipinti even obtained the money from Bracey," Judge Jack Panella wrote in the Superior Court's opinion dated Thursday.
Mr. Bracey, through his Bracey's Supermarket Inc., has sued Mr. Occhipinti and his wife, Michele, over the deal in county court. The status of that lawsuit could not immediately be determined Monday.
Contact the writer: bkrawczeniuk@ timesshamrock.com