Ledyard Couple Accused Of Swindling Montville Woman Will Be Tried Separately

By Dirk Langeveld

A Ledyard couple accused of scamming the president of the Montville Town Fair out of $45,000 will be tried separately, a New London Superior Court judge ruled on Monday. 

Judge Arthur C. Hadden denied the state’s motion of joinder in the case of Joanne and John Skok. Both defendants, who are charged with first-degree larceny and conspiracy to commit larceny, entered formal pleas of not guilty and requested a jury trial. 

Assistant State’s Attorney Lawrence Tytla, in arguing for a joinder, said the couple faces the same charges and has been attending each court date together. Tytla said the state is also accusing the Skoks of being co-conspirators and that the evidence to be used against them would be identical.

“Essentially we’d be doing the same trial twice if we were to try them separately,” he said.

Defense attorney Michael Jewell, in opposing the motion, said he thought the evidence likely to be introduced against Joanne—including prior larceny convictions—would prejudice a jury against John. 

“My client is certainly not very supportive of her actions, I’ll put it that way,” said Jewell. 

Joanne’s attorney, Theodore Koch, said that if the Skoks were to be tried together Jewell would likely seek to exonerate John by implicating Joanne in the case. 

“That would essentially be having a second prosecutor against her at trial,” said Koch. 

Hadden said he agreed with this concern and ordered the Skoks to be tried separately. Jury selection for Joanne’s trial began on Monday, while John’s case is on hold pending a June 20 review of a competency examination. 

The charges 

According to a police affidavit, the Skoks are accused of creating a complex scheme to defraud Montville resident Jacqueline Becker, then 72. Becker said she met the couple in 2005 while president and treasurer of the Montville Town Fair after they answered a call for volunteers. 

Becker said Joanne claimed to have experience in grant writing. She said she covered fair expenses with $40,000 of her own money because Joanne promised to reimburse her with $45,000 she had secured in grants, but that this money never appeared. 

Becker also told police she paid Joanne after she said she would hire a private investigator to look into an issue where one of Becker’s relatives defaulted on a car loan. She said she paid the Skoks about $90,000 between 2006 and 2010 for alleged attorney and investigation fees.

According to police reports, Becker said Joanne told her an increasingly complex story of how the car dealership was selling stolen cars and owned by the Gotti crime family, that Becker stood to receive a California house as part of a settlement deal, that an Argentinean diplomat had bought the house but couldn’t cover the closing costs, and that the diplomat’s attorney had been hit by a car and lost the documents related to this sale. 

A police review of the Skoks’ bank account found their withdrawals covered living expenses and that several checks with memos such as “attorney fees” and “court fees” were deposited to the account. 

Disability and competence issues

Jewell provided medical records to Hadden and said John, 59, has suffered memory loss following a car accident in June of 2012. He asked that John be examined for mental competence before the start of a trial. 

“I’m very concerned that Mr. Skok is not able to understand these proceedings,” he said. 

Hadden agreed to order the competency examination, but denied a request from Koch to continue Joanne’s trial to a later date. Joanne, 62, appeared in court in a wheelchair while wearing a neck brace. Koch said she suffers from a number of medical conditions and takes over two dozen types of medication. 

“With all due respect to her, she looks really unhealthy,” he said. “She’s unhealthy to the point that you cannot fake.” 

Tytla was skeptical of the claim, saying Joanne made the same representations and wore a neck brace when he prosecuted her for larceny in 1988. Hadden said the court will address any need to accommodate Joanne’s health if the issue arises.