GUILDERLAND — Julian LeVine is 93 and completely blind, he says. He has also had a stroke, and his memory isn’t good. So when the plumber his son had hired to do some repairs around his Guilderland home took the $600 he was given for parts and never returned, the elder LeVine was “very disappointed.”

“It’s pretty bad,” said Julian LeVine. “It’s bad enough when you steal from people who can see, but when you steal from people who can’t? It’s awful. How low can you go?”

It hasn’t been just the alleged theft that has irked his son, Robert LeVine. It is how difficult it has been to learn the answers to seemingly simple questions like when the alleged perpetrator was due to appear in court, or what LeVine would need to do to get his money back.

Robert LeVine filed a report with the Guilderland Police in November, he said. He had as supporting documentation earlier receipts and checks, a long series of text messages including some from the plumber that allegedly admit to taking LeVine’s money, and a transcribed version of the texts, with explanatory comments.

A month or so after filing the report, he says, he got a call from the officer who had taken the report, saying that they had made an arrest.

But that, LeVine says, is when things started to get murky.

Christopher Guilbault was arrested by Guilderland Police Officer Tim Halloran on Dec. 16, 2015. Within a couple of days, Halloran called Robert LeVine to let him know about the arrest. But, LeVine says, when he asked the officer when Guilbault would appear in court, Halloran said he didn’t know, even though the initial court date — Jan. 14, 2016 — was written on the arrest report.

LeVine says he asked Halloran what was the next step, and says that Halloran told him he wasn’t sure, but thought that LeVine would soon receive a letter in the mail about the court date. Halloran could not be reached for comment.

As LeVine was waiting to receive a letter, he saw a notice in The Enterprise’s Blotters column about Guilbault’s Dec. 16 arrest. This prompted LeVine to call Halloran again to ask what was happening. He says he left a message on Jan. 8 or so, and then again on Jan. 12 or so, but did not hear back.

LeVine says he called again on Jan. 15 and spoke to a secretary at the police department. She asked him for the arrest report, and he did not have it in hand, so he said that he would call again,

He called again, he says, on Jan. 19, this time with arrest report in hand, and spoke to the same secretary, who said a sergeant would call him back. No one called, he says.

He called the police chief’s office again on Jan. 25 and got a different secretary. She also said that she did not know what he should do, which “confused” LeVine. She told him that she would have a sergeant call him, at which point LeVine said, “OK, but that was supposed to happen a week ago, could you make sure it really happens?”

In frustration, he says, he called The Enterprise on about Jan. 28. He said that he wasn’t sure if he was supposed to be calling the police, the town court, or the district attorney’s office, but that no matter whom he called, it seemed he didn’t get called back.

Eventually, he did receive a call from a Guilderland Police sergeant, he says, who told him when Guilbault was next due in court (by that point Guilbault had already appeared in Guilderland Town Court once and was on the calendar for a date in February, which was later adjourned to March 17). The sergeant also told LeVine that he should call the Albany County District Attorney’s office.

District attorney’s role

LeVine called the district attorney’s office a total of three times, never receiving a phone call back, he says. At this point, LeVine says, he was starting to wonder what was the point of filing a police report. Having the perpetrator arrested was all well and good, he said, but what he really wanted was to see his father get the money back.

The Enterprise then called a spokeswoman from the district attorney’s office, Cecilia Walsh, to ask her what procedures victims of petit larceny should follow after filing a police report, and to ask her specifically about LeVine’s case.

Walsh said that a specific assistant district attorney is assigned to cover the cases in each local court, and that, as soon as her office receives a file from the police on a particular case, the assistant district attorney covering that local court will phone the complainant to discuss it.

She also noted that the office makes every effort to seek restitution.

“A Victim’s Guide to Restitution in New York State,” posted on the district attorney’s website, says, “The DA is under an obligation to petition the Court to order restitution on your behalf.”

This document also says, “You need to clearly explain your need for restitution as soon as possible to the DA, the victim/witness advocate, and the probation department. Plea agreements can occur within days of the actual criminal offense. If this information is not provided before the plea agreement and sentencing, you may have to pursue the perpetrator in Civil Court.”

Walsh said, “It’s called the ‘criminal justice’ system, so it is a system meant to protect the rights of those accused of a crime. We try to take a victim-centered approach. We take an extra step here, to make sure victims’ rights are being upheld.”

When asked why no one from her office had contacted LeVine until The Enterprise called to talk about his case, Walsh said that it is appropriate for her office to reach out at some point during the process, “before any formal decisions resolving the case are made” — in other words, suggesting that the office may not call the complainant right after receiving the file, but may wait until some point during the months that a case takes to wind through the court system.

Walsh noted that, for an average felony case handled by her office, the length of time from filing a police report to conviction is six months to a year. (It should be noted, though, that Guilbault is not charged with any felonies; he is charged with two misdemeanors.)

LeVine had told The Enterprise that he would like to make a victim impact statement. When this was relayed to Walsh, she said that victim impact statements are never made until just before sentencing, and then the question of whether to allow a statement is entirely at the discretion of the court.

The assistant district attorney who called LeVine after The Enterprise telephoned the office was Dennis DiBari, who is currently assigned to cover Guilderland.

When DiBari called him, LeVine said, the assistant district attorney said that the responsibility for contacting the complainant did fall to his department, but gave “no indication of why I was not contacted in regards to restitution.”

One of the first things DiBari did say, according to LeVine, was, “I need to ask you this question, but was this a drug deal between you and the perpetrator?”

LeVine told The Enterprise that he found this question offensive, and interpreted it as a passive-aggressive way of venting at him “for making trouble about this and the lack of efficiency and follow-up.”

LeVine added that he thought that “spinning a crime back on a victim is wrong and disrespectful.”

Reached by phone, DiBari referred The Enterprise to Walsh. When Walsh was asked about DiBari’s question, she said that she could not discuss specific open cases.

Another thing that DiBari said, according to LeVine, was that he would indeed seek restitution, but perhaps not for the entire $600; DiBari said that he would probably ask for only $450 or $500, LeVine said. DiBari explained to him, LeVine said, that it may be necessary to lower the amount, due to the perpetrator’s ability to pay. DiBari also said he would probably reduce the charge, from petit larceny to disorderly conduct with restitution.

Robert LeVine says that he said nothing about the request for a lesser amount to DiBari at the time, but that he was taken aback by it, as his father is on a fixed income and cannot afford to lose $600.

The Enterprise asked Walsh if it is possible for the district attorney’s office to ask for a perpetrator’s wages to be garnished, in order to pay restitution, and she said that it is possible, and that it, like all matters related to restitution, is at the discretion of the judge.

Lessons learned

LeVine says that he made a series of errors in judgment. He called a plumber that he knew nothing about, after seeing his truck in a supermarket parking lot. When Guilbault realized LeVine’s father was on a fixed income, and offered to do work for the family “on the side” so that he could charge less than the company normally would, LeVine agreed. And finally, LeVine says, he should never have handed Guilbault $600 in cash.

Since that last payment had been made in cash, and LeVine had no documentation of it, he photocopied a lengthy series of texts directly from his phone screen, he says, between himself and Guilbault, discussing the money and repayment; he says that Guilbault admitted in these texts that he owed the money and said he was not able yet to pay it back.

LeVine says that he has since called DiBari again and told him that he would not like to settle for less than the full $600. He hopes to attend court sessions when his matter is on the calendar, but is not sure he will be able to, because he works at night.

LeVine noted that he works in information technology and that, as part of his job, he is expected to return phone calls and emails. So, he said, “When I see a system that’s broken, it irks me.”

As the district attorney’s website indicates, another avenue of recourse for complainants to seek restitution, once any criminal complaint has been resolved, is Small Claims Court.

According to the booklet “A Guide to Small Claims in the NYS City, Town and Village Courts” given to The Enterprise by a clerk in the Guilderland Town Court, a suit would need to be brought in the village, town, or city court that has jurisdiction where the person or entity being sued lives or works.

Julian LeVine was for many years at the center of life in Guilderland. He taught physical education in Guilderland schools for 33 years, his son said. He was president of the Western Turnpike Rescue Squad, and also taught EMS and cardiopulmonary resuscitation, for many years. He was director of the summer camp at Tawasentha, where he was known as “Chief Tawasentha,” and dressed up for the kids in an Indian headdress.

Now, when asked if he is optimistic about getting the money back, the elder LeVine says, “I don’t know what’s going on. I can’t see. You know what I’d really like to get back? My sight!”