Madison police: Man scammed ‘elderly’ woman out of $578K by claiming to have leukemia

Aug. 11--MADISON -- A local man is facing charges after police say he bilked an elderly Wallingford woman out of more than half a million dollars by claiming to have leukemia.

James J. Cicarella, 33, led the woman to believe that she was giving him money to cover medical insurance and health care, police said in an affidavit filed in support of the arrest warrant application.

He actually used the money to buy jewelry, electronics and a house, police spokesman Capt. Joseph Race said in a release. He also bought furniture and a Cadillac Escalade, according to the warrant affidavit.

The woman subsequently sued Cicarella after Wallingford police declined to investigate her complaint, calling it a civil matter. But her lawyer later contacted Madison police after he learned additional information under oath during the civil litigation, the affidavit said.

Among other things, in testimony in the civil case, Cicarella admitted that he wasn't sick and didn't use the funds for the purposes stated at the time, according to the affidavit.

Madison police pursued the case.

Cicarella is accused of defrauding the woman of $578,466 in 2013 and 2014. Cicarella turned himself in Thursday morning on an outstanding warrant stemming from the police investigation.

Town records show Cicarella bought his two-story home in December 2013 for $349,000.

Cicarella, who lives on Yankee Peddler Path, is charged with first-degree larceny. He was held in lieu of $750,000 bail pending his appearance in Superior Court in New Haven. He was set to appear Thursday.

According to the police affidavit, Cicarella admitted in the civil litigation that he received money from the woman under the false pretense "that he had extensive medical bills from being treated for pre-leukemia."

Superior Court Judge Corinne Klatt, who heard the civil case in Meriden, ruled that Cicarella "committed fraud when he took the $578,466" from the plaintiff.

Cicarella "clearly made false representation to the plaintiff that he had a life-threatening medical condition, which she believed and relied upon," the judge ruled.

According to the affidavit, Cicarella got to know the woman when he went to work for a company owned by her husband in 2010. The woman was impressed with his work and hired him to do maintenance at their Wallingford home.

Over time, Cicarella and the couple grew close and "began to depend and rely" on him. In spring 2013, Cicarella informed the woman "that he was diagnosed with a life-threatening illness as a result of a dental treatment," the affidavit says.

Cicarella then began requesting financial assistance for medical insurance as well as medical treatment and procedures, the affidavit says.

In November 2013, the woman opened a joint TD Bank account to be used to pay his so-called medical expenses. Between then and May 2014, she deposited a total of $535,066 into the account, with the understanding that the money would be used for his medical expenses.

She also deposited cashier's checks totaling $43,400 into Cicarella's personal bank account, bringing the total amount of money she gave him for insurance and medical treatment to $578,466.

In April 2014, an employee of the woman's husband's business told her he saw Cicarella driving in a company leased truck -- which conflicted with something Cicarella had told her about being confined to a hospital "clean room."

She then hired a private investigator to conduct surveillance. The investigator confirmed and documented that Cicarella was not hospitalized.

"As ... this surveillance was occurring," the woman "was still regularly receiving text messages from Cicarella in which he was reporting being hospitalized and receiving treatment for his life-threatening illness," the affidavit says.

The woman later learned that Cicarella had bought a home at 16 Yankee Peddler Path in Madison for $349,000 "and that there was no evidence of any mortgage financing," the affidavit said.

New Haven Register reporter Wes Duplantier contributed to this report.

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