Scott Plans To Appeal Conviction

SNOW HILL -- Just one week after being convicted on three counts of theft scheme after bilking several resort area condo associations out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, Bill Scott, who was sentenced to 10 years in jail last month, filed a notice to appeal his case with the state’s Court of Special Appeals.

Scott, through his attorney Public Defender Chastity Simpson, filed a notice of appeal of his conviction and subsequent sentence with the Court of Special Appeals last Wednesday, just one week after his trial ended.

Last Friday, Scott’s case history was mailed to the state’s appellant court for the beginning of what will likely be a long appeal process, although the nature of the appeal was not spelled out in court documents. In the meantime, Scott remains in custody at a Maryland Division of Corrections facility in Jessup.

In April, a Worcester County grand jury indicted Scott, president of Scott and Associates, a public accounting and property management firm, on six counts of theft and theft scheme for clearing out the accounts of a handful of condominium associations over a two-year period that ended with his confession earlier this year. His victims included, among others, the Sunset Village, Assateague House and San Remo condo associations, from which Scott absconded with over $800,000 from various operating and reserve accounts.

During the trial, which concluded on Aug. 17, victim testimony built a compelling case against Scott. Also during trial, a videotaped confession was shown in court, taken last February when Scott’s theft scheme began to unravel. After two days of testimony, Judge Richard Bloxom found Scott guilty of two counts of theft scheme over $100,000 and one count of theft scheme from $10,000 to $100,000.

For each of the first two counts, Bloxom sentenced Scott to 20 years with all but 10 years suspended. For the lesser conviction, Bloxom sentenced Scott to 15 years with all but 10 years suspended. The sentences are to be served concurrently, netting Scott a total of 10 years. He was also placed on probation for five years upon release and ordered to pay restitution to the victims.

At the close of the trial last month, Bloxom said the details of how Scott would begin paying over $800,000 in restitution to the victims would be sorted out at a later date, although it appears from court documents no restitution plan has been yet determined. Meanwhile, one of the victims, Assateague House, filed a civil suit shortly after his indictment in March and Scott was ordered to pay over $437,000 to the victims in that case earlier this summer.