From the newsroom of the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin, Binghamton, New York, Wednesday, June 8, 2005 .....

Police expand probe of man accused of defrauding deaf

BY TOM VANDEN BROOK
Gannett News Service

The FBI has joined investigators in California, New York and Massachusetts to determine whether a deaf man accused of defrauding the deaf community in all three states also has abused children and other adults.

"What we're looking at is an individual who has victimized people nationwide and has become a parasite to a certain degree, preying on a community," says George Fong, FBI supervisory special agent in Sacramento.

Robert Lee Berry, 52, fled Owego in January before he could be arrested on charges he stole money from a deaf family he preyed on, Tioga County Sheriff's Investigator Leonard Jackson said.

Berry was arrested in March in California on Jackson's warrants. California police later investigated other claims of Berry stealing from the deaf and falsifying prescriptions to get morphine-based cough medicine.

Berry is scheduled for trial June 22 on charges he illegally tried to get prescriptions for a morphine-like drug from several physicians in California.

His court-appointed lawyer, Dennis Hoptowit, did not return phone calls.

"(Berry) tells these people that he's a great guy, that he's short on cash and he'll pay them back. They fall for it hook, line and sinker," Jackson said. "He gets by because no one ever questions him because of his disability," he says.

Berry didn't stay long with Scott Westcott, who supported a family in Owego with disability payments and pay as a cook. But in that time, police say, Berry stole the man's mail, racked up his credit card and forged his checks for a total of $5,000 before slipping away.

Tioga will not call for Berry to be extradited from California to face local felony forgery charges, Tioga County District Attorney Gerald Keene said.

However, Tioga County may prosecute Berry after he serves his time in California if convicted, and after he's brought to Massachusetts to face child molestation charges there, Keene said.

Berry's alleged offenses are not unique. Most of his alleged crimes involve check forgery and obtaining prescription drugs illegally. What sets him apart is the relationship between his alleged victims and authorities.

"He is a hearing-impaired person, and you would expect that he would have the experience of being discriminated against," Butte County (Calif.) Assistant District Attorney Kevin Maloney said. "And yet he chooses to make people like this his victims with the knowledge that it's more difficult for them to report these things and get people to take them seriously."

Jackson says the deaf community tends to trust those who share their disability and are not used to dealing with law enforcement.

"The deaf community is kind of a culture unto themselves," Jackson says. "They don't really trust the police. I don't know if it's the language barrier. But at times it's hard to communicate with them."

Rochester resident Brenda Palmigiano is one who says she fell for Berry's story. She says Berry found her like he found most of his victims, trolling Internet chat rooms that are frequented by deaf people from coast to coast.

Palmigiano, who is deaf, met Berry while teaching a course on defensive driving in 2004 in Binghamton. In chat rooms she says he portrayed himself as a drug- and alcohol-abuse counselor who was well off.

"He uses his charm personality," she wrote in an e-mail. "He lied to deaf women about his living conditions such as he claimed to have a house, small plane and new car."

Berry stole her credit card and bought prescription medication with it, Palmigiano says. She says she was "on cloud nine" when she heard of his arrest in California and wants to see him extradited to New York.

"I describe him as persuasive, manipulative and evasive," Palmigiano says.

Maloney compares Berry's alleged victims to speakers of a foreign language who are embarrassed that they've been swindled and are uncertain of whom to trust. He says police and prosecutors who are struggling under heavy caseloads may not have the time or resources to help deaf victims.

"It's not any different than a newly arrived Asian immigrant who gets taken advantage of in New York or San Francisco or Dallas," Maloney says. "It may be hard for them to get their point across."

Palmigiano says that is true.

"I am sure that a Spanish-speaking person would want the authorities to speak his/her tongue," Palmigiano says in an e-mail.

One of the most serious charges Berry faces is in Framingham, Mass., where he is accused of molesting a child, according to the Middlesex County district attorney's office.

Berry had convinced the child's mother, who is deaf, to let him stay with the family, says Paul Kelley, a detective with the Framingham police department. Kelley says Berry then sexually assaulted her daughter, who was 5 at the time.

The girl is now 13. If convicted, Berry could be imprisoned for life.

That case is of particular interest to the FBI, Fong says.

"We're looking at his travels out here," Fong says. "We're looking at the people he's dealt with to see if he has abused them. We're also very interested to see if children or minors were present who may have been molested or exploited."

Berry has left a trail of alleged victims who are deaf.

In the case involving the Westcotts in Owego, Berry used the money he stole to obtain painkillers, visiting as many as 20 doctors to get prescriptions in New York, Jackson says.

Eventually, relatives of the alleged victim who were not deaf contacted authorities, Jackson says. Westcott brought police the notices from collection agencies and utilities threatening to cut his service.

"That's the tough part," Jackson says of cases involving deaf victims. "These people just sort of suck it up and move on."

Staff writers NANCY DOOLING and JIM WRIGHT contributed to this report.

© 2005 Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin

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