PEABODY — A judge has given a former Peabody official who ran a charity, six more months to complete court-ordered community service, part of his sentence in a bank fraud case.
Scott M. Frasca, 54, had avoided jail time when he was sentenced in 2017 to 90 days of house arrest and five years of probation — a sentence that also included $83,000 in restitution and 400 hours of community service.
The restitution was paid by Frasca’s family. But Frasca has managed to complete just a little more than half of the community service hours ordered by the judge five years ago.
A probation officer put the figure at 228 hours and 15 minutes.
With just days left on that original five-year probation, the officer called Frasca into court. She asked Judge Thomas Drechsler to extend Frasca’s probation by another six months, until June 1, to give him time to complete the remaining 175 hours.
“He needs to complete that community service,” Drechsler, who was the judge who imposed the sentence back in 2017, said during the brief hearing.
“Because you didn’t fulfill your obligation, your probation is going to be extended until June,” Drechsler told Frasca.
“The pandemic really caused,” Frasca started to explain, before Drechsler cut him off.
The judge did offer an incentive to Frasca, telling him that if he had made “substantial” progress toward completing the community service hours, he might consider ending his probation sooner, and scheduled a status hearing for March.
Frasca ran the “Making a Difference in Peabody Foundation” out of offices on Lowell Street at the time he was charged in 2016.
He was also a former Peabody library trustee, the former chairman of Peabody’s Republican City Committee, and a former board member of the Peabody Area Chamber of Commerce. He also ran, unsuccessfully, for Peabody City Council in 2013.
But in 2014 and 2015, Frasca, who also supported himself by running the charity — something he was supposed to report to the Attorney General’s charities division but did not — came up with a scheme in which he borrowed thousands of dollars from banks and credit unions, then claimed to be the victim of identity fraud in order to avoid having to pay them back.
He used an altered Peabody police report to bolster the scheme.
Prosecutors at the time of his sentencing had sought 2½ years in jail for Frasca.
Courts reporter Julie Manganis can be reached at 978-338-2521, by email at jmanganis@salemnews.com or on Twitter at @SNJulieManganis
Courts reporter Julie Manganis can be reached at 978-338-2521, by email at jmanganis@salemnews.com or on Twitter at @SNJulieManganis
