THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 22, 1996 TAG: 9608220364
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARC DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 45 lines
A 71-year-old Suffolk man accused of swindling $181,500 from an elderly Georgia woman has been ordered to repay the money.
A federal judge on Monday also ordered the man, Marshall H. Parker, to pay $23,976 in interest and legal costs to the woman's estate.
That ruling marks the second time that Parker, who is a former church deacon and retired machine operator for Planters Peanuts, has lost a case in Norfolk's federal court accusing him of being a con man.
In 1976, Parker was charged criminally with bilking about $90,000 from several elderly people from 1972 to 1975, including a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention. A postal inspector called it ``a classic confidence swindle'' in which Parker persuaded his victims to trust him to invest money for them at what would have been high rates of return.
In that case, Parker pleaded guilty to three counts of mail fraud. He was sentenced to probation and ordered to pay restitution.
In the latest case, Parker was not charged criminally. Instead, a Georgia family sued Parker in March. They accused him of swindling Alice C. Mulinix out of $181,500 from 1993 to 1995. Mulinix was 86 when she died this past January.
According to the lawsuit, Mulinix and Parker struck up a friendship about 30 years ago in North Carolina. In the mid-1980s, Mulinix, who had taught school in Georgia for 42 years, started sending money to Parker to invest for her. Parker promised her a 14 percent return on her investments.
From August 1993 to May 1995, Mulinix allegedly sent Parker money almost every month, sometimes two or three times a month. The payments ranged from $1,000 to $35,000. They totaled $184,500. Parker repaid $3,000 to her.
After Mulinix died, her family tried to collect her money from Parker, but he refused.
In April, Parker's attorney filed a reply to the lawsuit. He claimed that Mulinix had sent the money to Parker ``under an express trust'' so he could invest the funds for her use while she lived, but he would keep the money after she died.
On Monday, Judge Henry C. Morgan Jr. entered judgment against Parker. Morgan ruled against Parker because the Suffolk man did not reply to several court motions, including a motion for default judgment and sanctions. In return, Mulinix's family withdrew a claim for punitive damages against Parker.
KEYWORDS: BILK RULING SWINDLE by CNB