Officer accused of exploiting elderly woman granted sergeant status
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Aaron Goodwin has been granted permanent status as a sergeant in the Portsmouth Police Department.Deb Cram photo, file
PORTSMOUTH — A city police officer accused in a civil court case of exploiting an elderly resident to inherit her large estate was granted permanent status as a sergeant by a 2-1 vote of the Police Commission on Wednesday.
Commissioner Gerald Howe made a motion to grant the permanent status to Sgt. Aaron Goodwin, following a probationary period, which Howe said was based on Goodwin's "performance and conduct" during the probationary period. Commissioner John Golumb seconded the motion, while new Commissioner Brenna Cavanaugh cast a vote of no.
There was no public discussion about the matter before or after the vote, which was taken during the 13-minute Police Commission meeting.
Goodwin is scheduled to be the subject of a January 2015 trial involving the estate of the late Geraldine Webber, who died Dec. 11, 2012, at age 93. Webber left her riverfront home, stocks, bonds and a Cadillac to Goodwin and the officer is now accused in Rockingham County Superior Court of exerting undue influence over her, while she had dementia.
Goodwin, who denies the allegations, was named Webber's primary beneficiary in a will and trust she endorsed seven months before her death.
Manchester attorney David Eby represents the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Society and The Shriner's Hospital for Children, each of which were $500,000 beneficiaries under Webber's 2009 will, but named $80,000 beneficiaries under her 2012 estate plans.
Eby alleges Goodwin befriended Webber, who was diagnosed with dementia in 2010, before helping her visit “more than one attorney for the purpose of changing her estate plan.”
“The attorneys declined to draft a new estate plan,” Eby wrote in court motions. “The petitioners believe, and discovery will bear this out, that these attorneys refused to draft new estate planning documents because each had serious concerns about Ms. Webber's capacity and/or that she was being unduly influenced to sign a new estate plan.”
Portsmouth attorney Paul McEachern, who represents four of Webber's heirs challenging Goodwin's inheritance, has called the estate dispute “a matter of official corruption” and successfully argued in court for the case to be heard in public.
Webber's disabled grandson and only living heir is also disputing the estate through attorney Lisa Bellanti. He was excluded from his grandmother's last will and trust.
Portsmouth City Attorney Robert Sullivan has appeared in court on behalf of the Portsmouth police and fire departments. By terms of Webber's 2009 will, the departments were each designated to receive one-quarter of Webber's estate, after the sale of her home and assets. In her disputed last will and trust, Webber left the departments each $25,000.
Through attorney Chuck Doleac, Goodwin has denied “any and all allegations of any wrongdoing concerning Geraldine Webber.” In court documents, Goodwin said he gave Webber a business card to contact the attorney who wrote her last will and trust, but that she conducted all further estate planning on her own.
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