Lore: Former Weston autism counselor changes plea to guilty

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Lore: Former Weston autism counselor changes plea to guilty

Written by Gay

Thursday, 02 September 2010 16:30

Former Weston autism counselor Lore of Carmel, N.Y., changed her plea in

Stamford Superior Court today from not guilty, to guilty of first degree larceny

charges.

Ms. Lore originally pleaded not guilty to charges that she misrepresented

herself as a certified behavior analyst to the Weston Board of Education and

Norwalk public schools. In both districts, she was contracted to perform

behavior intervention services for children with autism in special education

programs.

With the change to a guilty plea, Ms. Lore faces up to eight years in prison,

suspended after three years, as well as possible restitution to the school

districts.

The court is currently performing an investigation into restitution and will

announce its findings at Ms. Lore's sentencing, scheduled for Oct. 28.

As the proprietor of Spectrum Kids, LLC, Ms. Lore was paid $300,350 for services

provided children with autism in Weston from 2005 to 2006.

In 2009, after a complaint by Norwalk parents about her teaching methods,

Norwalk Police Detective Orr conducted an investigation into Ms. Lore's

background and discovered she had lied about her credentials and was not a board

certified behavior specialist as she had claimed, and did not hold several

college degrees she claimed to have as well. Police say she did not even

graduate from high school.

Now that a guilty plea has been issued, the case will not go to trial. Weston

Police Detective Carl Filsinger said in his opinion, had the case gone to trial,

there was enough evidence to secure a guilty verdict. He thanked Norwalk Police

Detective Orr for his diligent work on the case.

" Dave Orr gave Weston a lot of assistance and made it much easier for us to put

our case together, " Detective Filsinger said.

Graham, a Norwalk parent who was the first one to question Ms. Lore's

credentials, was in the court room today when Ms. Lore changed her plea to

guilty.

" I think the proposed sentence of eight years suspended after three is fair, as

long as she gets five years of closely monitored probation and therapy, " Ms.

Graham said.

Ms. Graham's son, who has autism, was one of those Ms. Lore provided counseling

for in the Norwalk school district. She said the therapy Ms. Lore provided was

not appropriate for him.

" My son was always high functioning, but she used a hodgepodge of programs that

weren't appropriate and damaged him. He was at a very special time of

development, and her actions made him robotic. She stole a year and a half from

his life, " Ms. Graham said.

Jerry Belair, Weston school superintendent, said he was pleased to see his

request for restitution is being considered by the court. " We asked for full

restitution of the $300,350. It's the principle of the thing. This was a person

who represented herself in a fraudulent manner, " he said.

Mr. Belair said that following the Lore incident, the Weston schools work

very carefully now to assure the authenticity of all contracted service

providers.