Kingston resident arraigned, enters insanity plea in SDT case

11/21/08 - A woman charged with breaking and entering into the Sigma Delta Tau sorority house last spring pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity during her arraignment Monday in the Rhode Island Superior Court.Margo Caddick, 55, of 70 Cherry Road in Kingston is facing six counts of felony larceny, items worth more than $500, and six counts of misdemeanor larceny, items worth less than $500.

If she is found to be legally insane and not a danger to herself or those around her, she will be released under restrictions to be decided later.

"I can't comment on the reasons for [her insanity plea], other than the fact that it will be something presented at the trial, if the case goes to trial," Lise Gescheidt, Caddick's defense attorney, said.

Another defense Gescheidt has prepared is a faulty search warrant. Because the warrant allowed police too much leeway in their investigation, it was illegal, and she has put in a motion to suppress it, Gescheidt said yesterday. If the warrant gets suppressed, charges against Caddick will be dropped.

The resulting search found more than 200 allegedly stolen items including jewelry, television sets, birth certificates, house keys and neighbor's mail.

Detective Division Commander James Tierney of South Kingstown Police Department said he disagrees with Gescheidt thinking the warrant is faulty.

"There was a probable cause to believe that she did possess stolen goods, and the judge agreed with us," Tierney said earlier this week.

He said there were indications from the positioning and number of the allegedly stolen items that led police to believe they could have been obtained illegally.

"For instance, so I walked into your house, and there were four or five televisions in boxes stacked on top of each other, that would certainly arouse my suspicions," he said, relating an example from another case. "[In this case] one of the officers had observed a drawer that had individually packaged keys with addresses written on tags. Multiple addresses and multiple tags that clearly would arose the suspicion ... of a trained investigator."

Tierney added this was not an isolated incident and the larcenies have been ongoing for some time. He believes Caddick is responsible for numerous unreported thefts that have occured during the last for years.

"I've been in the business for almost 26 years, this has been an extremely unique case," he said. "In this particular case, neighbors have had things missing for years and they did not report larcenies to the police."

Tierney said this is because of the trivial nature of the items- watches, spare keys, cell phones, CDs, key chains- items that could have been easily and innocently lost, but this is not case.

Jillian Chase, current president of Sigma Delta Tau, was the treasurer of the sorority when Caddick originally broke in and was arrested. She said two of her sisters found Caddick rummaging through their fridge at 3 or 4 a.m.

"They came out and saw a woman in black," Chase said. "They called our house mother, who was, coincidentally, a South Kingstown police officer, and she went out into the parking lot to talk to [Caddick]; because she was a police officer, she noticed burglary equipment and other possibly stolen stuff."

Chase said there was a multitude of items stolen from the sorority, but she was not certain it was Caddick who stole them. Tierney agreed.

"There were hundreds of items stockpiled in her home, and we still can't connect them with their owners," Tierney said.