Strong woman pleads guilty to theft

FARMINGTON – A Strong woman pleaded guilty last week to taking more than $4,000 from a friend utilizing debit card information, as part of an arranged plea that will require her to pay the money back in the next 10 months.

Erica Couture, 33 of Strong, pleaded guilty to theft by unauthorized taking, a misdemeanor, as part of a plea arrangement that resulted in a felony theft charge being dismissed. Couture’s plea was the nature of an Alford plea, wherein the defendant agrees to plead guilty to avoid a trial, but does not admit to specific wrongdoing.

Couture’s plea relates to her taking $4,239.83 from a friend, utilizing the friend’s debt card information to pay off some of her own bills over a 16-month period. Police were eventually notified and investigated.

The arranged sentence requires Couture to pay back the $4,239.83 in restitution within 10 months. If she does that, and abides by the other terms of the deferred disposition, the theft charge will be dismissed. If she doesn’t, it’s an open sentence on the Class D misdemeanor, carrying a maximum sentence of 364 days in jail and a $2,000 fine.

The victim, appearing in court last Wednesday, said that the theft had unsettled her, as Couture had been her friend at the time. She said that she trusted the District Attorney’s Office and agreed with the decision in principle, but that she didn’t agree with the sentence itself, calling it a “glorified loan.”

“Erica [Couture] not only took my money,” the victim said, “she took my trust.”

It appeared that neither side was totally happy with the arranged plea, Justice Robert Mullen noted. There were concerns on both sides with going to trial; Couture had maintained throughout the investigation that the funds had been a loan and were in fact previously repaid.

Couture’s cash bail would be taken and applied toward restitution, Mullen noted.