Felony Now Misdemeanor In Case Of GM Site Thefts

MASSENA - A felony charge pending against a Massena Electric Utiliity Board member accused of stealing thousands of dollars worth of equipment from the former GM Powertrain plant when he was employed there as a security guard have been reduced to a misdemeanor and will be dismissed if he remains arrest free for the next six months.

Massena Town Justice James M. Crandall granted Richard J. Blais, 71, of 16 Pleasant St., Massena, an adjournment of contemplation of dismissal during a court appearance earlier this month.

The district attorney's office had previously made a motion to have the felony charge of third-degree grand larceny reduced to a misdemeanor count of petit larceny. He was also charged with fifth-degree conspiracy.

Those charges will be dismissed if he remains arrest free for the next six months. Blais was represented by Canton attorney Charles Nash.

St. Lawrence County Assistant District Attorney James L. Monroe told the court the ACD was appropriate, suggesting there would be significant procedural problems in the prosecution of the case.

Blais was one of two guards working for the security firm responsible for the former General Motors Powertrain plant site charged with stealing more than $3,000 worth of tools, materials and equipment from the site last winter.

Massena-based state police had charged Blais and Clinton C. Adner, 51, of Canton each with a felony count of third-degree grand larceny and fifth-degree conspiracy.

Adner had also been granted an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal earlier this month. Petit larceny and fifth-degree conspiracy charges pending against him will also be dismissed if Adner remains arrest free for the next six months.

Blais, a security guard for Securitas at the time of his arrest, allegedly worked in concert with Adner to steal a tig welder, a plasma cutter, sheets of metal, miscellaneous generators and tools from the former GM Powertrain plant on March 6.

The situation reportedly came to light on March 7 when the security firm's on-site supervisor called the four guards that had worked the weekend to ask them about an AED and a welder missing from the plant.

Christopher Radel said while he was talking to his supervisor Blais called him to ask if the supervisor had called him about the missing items. "Dick told me not to say anything or else it would be opening a can of worms," Mr. Radel told a state police Bureau of Criminal Investigation investigator.

An employee for the Revitalizing Automotive Commission Environmental Trust had also indicated he was surprised when a forklift that had a three-quarters charge when he left March 5 had only a one-eighth charge when he returned the next morning.

"The forklift being dead was very unusual," he noted in his statement to police.

He pointed out the security guards would be the only people over the weekend with access to the restricted area where the forklift was stored.

A security guard that worked the same shift as Blais said he had overheard his co-worker have several conversations with a security guard from the other shift.

He told police he had heard Blais talk with the other security guard about items at the plant and then a short time later he said Blais made a phone call asking a third party to come to the plant with a trailer.

That security guard, in the statement he provided police, said the next day he heard the other guard tell Blais that he had loaded several sheets of metal, a big welder and some tools, taken after a lock had been cut off a tool box, onto the trailer.

Blais had continued to serve on the Massena Electric Utility Board while the charges were pending against him.