Dentist cleared of murder charge found guilty of insurance fraud

Oct. 26--KINGSTON -- Kingston dentist Gilberto Nunez was found guilty Tuesday by an Ulster County jury of making false insurance claims on a Washington Avenue property he owned after it burned down in 2014, the Orange County District Attorney's Office says.

Nunez, 49, was found guilty of third-degree grand larceny, third-degree insurance fraud and five counts of first-degree falsifying business records, all felonies. The jury got the case at about 2 p.m. on Friday and came back at about 2 p.m. Tuesday.

The insurance fraud and grand larceny charges carry maximum sentences of two-and-a-third years in prison. The remaining charges carry sentences of one-and-a-third to four years. The Orange County District Attorney's Office was the special prosecutor in the case.

In April 2015, City of Kingston police accused Nunez of making false insurance claims on his Washington Avenue property after it went up in flames on Feb. 20, 2014. He has not been accused of setting the fire. The charges came out of a larger investigation into Nunez regarding the death of Thomas Kolman, a physical therapist from Saugerties.

The property in question, 381-385 Washington Ave., was next to Nunez's current dental office. Police say he collected $8,400 from Preferred One Insurance Company as a result of the fire.

In June, an Ulster County jury found Nunez not guilty of second-degree murder in Kolman's death, but convicted him of two felony counts of second-degree possession of a forged instrument for having a fake CIA identification and letterhead.

Nunez faces yet another trial next month on a third indictment. In May 2015, the Ulster County Sheriff's Office charged Nunez with making false statements on his pistol permit application in February 2014. He's charged with two counts of second-degree perjury, two counts of first-degree offering a false instrument for filing and first-degree making an apparently sworn false statement.

Nunez will remain free on $1 million bail. He's due back in Ulster County Court for a hearing on the perjury charges on Nov. 10. Ulster County Court Judge Don Williams previously said that he wants all the charges adjudicated before he considers sentencing.

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