Guilty Of Larceny: Scott Bartlett's Other Crime

FAIRFIELD, CT — Scott Bartlett, Fairfield's former public works superintendent who is serving time in prison in the fill pile case, was separately sentenced last year in connection with another case.

A few months after the Fairfield fill pile case exploded, Bartlett was arrested on charges of first-degree and second-degree larceny, accused of embezzling thousands of dollars from a mentally disabled woman, for whom he had been appointed her conservator.

Bartlett was accused of stealing at least $36,000 from the woman, who is the adult daughter of a deceased former Fairfield DPW employee. As Patch first reported, according to authorities, Bartlett and his wife, Ann Bartlett, were appointed conservators for the woman in 2013.

The Bartletts were heavily in debt between 2014 and 2016, to the tune of more than $1 million in mortgage, credit card and tax payments, police said, and in August 2019, an employee of GE Credit Union's Fairfield location contacted Fairfield police to report suspicious activity in the victim's account.

Similar allegations of suspiciously large deposits and withdrawals were made against Scott Bartlett earlier in 2019.

Between December 2015 and September 2019, authorities said that Bartlett illegally withdrew the $36,000 from the woman's account in cash or by issuance of a check for cash. Additionally, Bartlett also charged $500 on the woman's debit card for a transaction at a used car dealership in Seymour, authorities wrote in an affidavit, even though the woman does not own a car and cannot drive. Bartlett also deposited a $120 tax refund for the woman into his own bank account, according to authorities.

When given a chance by police to explain the financial activity in the woman's account, Bartlett declined, but said only he was responsible for the transactions, not his wife.

This past December, Bartlett was sentenced to five years in prison in connection with the fill pile case. Separately, a spokesperson in the State's Attorney's Office told Patch, Bartlett pleaded guilty to first-degree larceny in the embezzlement case; he was sentenced to five years in prison, suspended after two years served, which is running concurrently with the other sentencing.

According to the spokesperson, Bartlett paid restitution to the victim late last year. In 2020, he also paid back $31,000 of the $36,000, according to authorities.

Patch reached out to the law firm Paoletti & Gusmano, which represented Bartlett, for comment, but did not immediately receive a reply.

— Anna Schier, Patch Staff, contributed to this report.