GREENFIELD — An Idaho woman who pleaded guilty to her role in defrauding Orange out of $68,000 has had her case continued without a finding for two years, meaning she will remain free unless she is arrested on a separate charge within the next 24 months.
Jennifer Grasmick, 52, appeared remotely in Franklin County Superior Court on Thursday for sentencing, after the session had been rescheduled from May 29. As part of the sentencing, she will forfeit the $5,000 she posted as bail, which will be used as restitution. Bail is meant to incentivize a defendant to appear for all court dates, and it is typically returned to them after a case is resolved if all court rules are followed.
Grasmick will not be required to repay the remaining $63,000 she helped defraud from Orange due to a proven financial inability to do so. However, Judge Michael Callan ordered her to notify the court of any changes to her income. Defense attorney Joseph Pacella said his client had to borrow the $5,000 for bail and additional money to pay for his services.
Grasmick pleaded guilty on May 18 to one count of larceny over $1,200 for her role in defrauding Orange in 2023.
Orange was defrauded out of $338,000. Town Administrator Fortier had said in May 2024 that the initial number was more than $800,000, “but the banks were able to stop some of those payments.” The fraud nearly led to the town closing its two libraries to save money.
Fortier, who took over as town administrator in August 2023, has said that he has since increased checks and balances and changed certain protocols to ensure this type of fraud does not happen again. The theft of the remaining $270,000 remains under investigation.
Pacella previously said Grasmick is a divorced grandmother of five and was tricked into a romance scam with a man who pretended to be a caring and concerned love interest.
“She was ill, virtually homebound and subject to this romance scheme,” Pacella told Callan last month.
That person, Pacella explained, posed as a Toronto project manager who initiated a relationship via Facebook in January 2023, offering flattery and a story of how he needed to care for his mother. He convinced her that his work sent him to Israel and that he became a fraud victim, and asked for her help in collecting money he was owed for a project. She assisted him, not knowing the story was fabricated.
“[Grasmick] had nothing to do with the thought process of this scheme,” he said, adding that his client simply followed the man’s instructions.
Assistant District Attorney Nicholas Atallah previously said the fraud case originated in three emails sent to Orange Town Hall on July 6, 7 and 11 of 2023. They included fake invoices for $68,000 for the legitimate North Main Street reconstruction project. The payment was approved by the town’s then-highway superintendent and the Selectboard.
Atallah said the town accountant, upon receiving notice that the payment was approved, realized the town did not have a W-9 form or workers’ compensation insurance information on file for Jennifer Grasmick, and inquired in a letter to the Nampa, Idaho, address listed on the invoice. Once Orange received the information, a check was sent to the same address in Idaho.
Atallah noted that the money was used to purchase an equivalent amount of Bitcoin that was then sent elsewhere. He mentioned there was then a third wire transfer — of $17,925 on Aug. 31 — to a limited liability company in Idaho. The three transfers came with $25 fees, totaling $68,000.
