Mr. Smiley Pleads Guilty in Connecticut to Stealing and Selling Rare
Maps; Sentencing Is Set for September
By JAMES KINSELLA
NEW HAVEN - Edward Forbes Smiley 3rd of Chilmark yesterday
pleaded guilty in federal and state courts in New Haven, Conn., to the
theft of rare maps from a Yale University Library - part of a
string of 97 maps that he stole between 1998 and 2005.
A Chilmark man is expected to plead guilty next Thursday to one or
more thefts of rare maps worth hundreds of thousands of dollars,
according to published reports in Connecticut newspapers.
Both the New Haven Register and the Hartford Courant have reported
that E. Forbes Smiley 3rd, a dealer in rare maps who lives on North
Road, may make pleas in back-to-back appearances in U.S. District Court
and state superior court in New Haven.
A Dukes county grand jury returned indictments last week against a former state probation officer who faces cocaine trafficking charges and two Oak Bluffs men who have been charged in connection with robbing an elderly Island man of his life savings.
Tisbury police are investigating a weekend break-in at the Park-and-Ride lot on High Point Lane where an electrician’s van was vandalized and a large quantity of tools stolen. Tisbury police chief Dan Hanavan said on Thursday that he believes the incident is unrelated to an earlier incident where some youths were apprehended for stealing cars and joyriding at the same parking lot. “We had a couple of kids taking joyrides up there, but we don’t think it is related to this break-in,” the chief said.
Chilmark police are investigating the theft of 21 solar panels from the Grey Barn on South Road stolen sometime over Presidents Day weekend.
According to the police report, the crate containing the panels weighed over 1,000 pounds. The 270-watt panels are valued at $14,000. Farm owners Eric and Molly Glasgow are currently outfitting their four new barns with solar panels, about 300 of which have already been installed.
Tisbury police arrested two Bridgewater men this week for attempting to steal a 1,000-pound lead sailboat keel.
Corey M. Dechaine, 19 and James Carroll McFarland, 21, were apprehended in broad daylight on Monday on property off Oak Hill Road used by Gannon and Benjamin Marine Railway for the storage of boat parts.
