WEBBER ESTATE DISPUTE
Cop's $2.7M benefactor 'not 100 percent,' says lawyer
Ritzo says he warned state, local officials
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In a deposition, attorney James Ritzo said he knew Geraldine Webber for 25 to 30 years before her death in December 2012 and maintains Webber asked him to change her will to leave "everything" to Portsmouth police Sgt. Aaron Goodwin shortly after she met him and that he declined because she had dementia. Deb Cram file photo
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By Elizabeth Dinan
edinan@seacoastonline.com
Posted Jan. 15, 2015 @ 3:41 pm
Updated Jan 15, 2015 at 3:52 PM
edinan@seacoastonline.com
Posted Jan. 15, 2015 @ 3:41 pm
Updated Jan 15, 2015 at 3:52 PM
PORTSMOUTH — A local lawyer, who was the first to question police Sgt. Aaron Goodwin's $2.7 million inheritance, described his decades-long relationship with the officer's benefactor, the multiple times he changed her wills and their billing arrangement, as well as her declining health, all during a deposition taken in advance of a probate court trial.
In a 96-page transcript of the deposition, attorney James Ritzo is quoted saying he knew Goodwin's benefactor, the late Geraldine Webber, for 25 to 30 years before her death in December 2012 at age 94. He maintains that Webber asked him to change her will to leave "everything" to Goodwin shortly after meeting him and that he declined because she had dementia.
Webber's last will and trust is being disputed in the Strafford County probate court, where Goodwin denies allegations that he exerted undue influence over her, while she had dementia, to inherit most of her wealth. Ritzo first reported those allegations to the Rockingham County probate court in August 2012, while claiming Goodwin continued to "romance" Webber. He asked the court to have the elderly woman's competency evaluated, but she died before the court ruled on that request.
Ritzo said during his recent deposition that he called Goodwin "early on" to say Webber "had diminished capacity and I told him that if he goes to the house he should bring somebody with him because he may find himself in a mess." Asked to elaborate, Ritzo said, "The kind of mess he's in now."
He said Webber "was not 100 percent" and that she often reported things "missing or gone or somebody took something."
Before Webber died, Ritzo said, he called Deputy Police Chief Corey MacDonald to say Webber was being unduly influenced by Goodwin and that Webber was "vulnerable." He said he also wrote to the attorney general's office to report that he refused to change Webber's will to benefit Goodwin and that Goodwin had been taking the elderly woman to casinos and restaurants.
When he was deposed, Goodwin acknowledged taking the elderly woman to restaurants and casinos and said that two months after he met her, Webber told him she wanted to give him her waterfront home. Goodwin said he disclosed this to Lou Ferland, who was police chief at the time, and was instructed to only see her when he was off duty. But Ferland disputed that when he was deposed, saying he didn't know Goodwin inherited Webber's house, and more, until after she died.
Ritzo said during his deposition that he also complained about Goodwin's relationship with Webber to the state Bureau of Elder and Adult Services, to former police commissioner John Russo and to former City Councilor Nancy Clayburgh. He said he also contacted attorney Gary Holmes, who wrote Webber's last and contested will and trust, to tell him to "be careful, she's not competent."
Ritzo said he officiated one of Webber's marriages at Little Harbor Chapel and that during her later years, he did her banking, phoned her almost daily and if she didn't answer, he'd go to her home "and pick her up off the floor." He said that at the end of her life, Webber fell often, her eyesight failed and her mental capacity diminished.
He said he helped her when her heat failed, when her "dock was floating down the river," when her underground oil tank leaked, when she lost her driver's license and with her septic problems that caused toilet tissue to wind up in Sagamore Creek.
"I was basically trying to take care of her when no one else would," Ritzo said.
That, he said, included rewriting her will multiple times over the years because she would notify him that she wanted to change the amounts of money she was leaving people.
"It depends where they brought her to eat and whether she liked it or not, then the money went up," he said.
The Portsmouth lawyer said Webber wanted to give him her car and home, adding, "I didn't want either."
While deposed, Ritzo said that after Goodwin got involved with Webber, he received a Feb. 15, 2011, letter from the attorney general's office notifying him that Webber no longer wanted him to contact her. He said the order was based on "false reports" made "on behalf of Mr. Goodwin."
In November 2012, Ritzo said, he sent Webber a $65,000 bill for six years of unpaid work he did for her at a rate of $250 an hour. He said that "early on" he billed Webber twice, but she didn't want to pay the bills because she preferred that he be compensated from her estate.
Ritzo said Webber first suggested he take 18 percent of her final estate as payment and that he said no. He said she countered with 11.5 percent, before they both agreed on 5 percent.
The local lawyer said he prepared "four or five" wills for Webber over the years and at some point, attorney Glenn Graper wrote Webber's wills and Ritzo witnessed them.
A separate but related investigation is being conducted by an independent panel and $20,000 was approved by the City Council to conduct investigations
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