Tamara Santarelli exits the Susquehanna County Courthouse after being sentenced to probation in connection with two fires that were intentionally set at a Susquehanna County Campground.
BY STACI WILSON
Susquehanna County District Attorney Jason Legg described the past four years of battles Mary Alice and Arnold Manning have had with Tamara Santarelli as a “nightmare.”
That nightmare came to a close Thursday with the Manning’s back as the owners of the Shady Rest Campground after Santarelli, 42, was sentenced in Susquehanna County Court in connection to two fires at the property.
Santarelli, formerly of Wilkes-Barre, now residing in Harpursville, N.Y., pleaded no contest in January to intentionally setting fire to her residence at the Gibson Twp. campground in April 2009. She also entered a no contest plea to a charge of reckless endangerment that stemmed from a November 2007 fire that destroyed a bath house on the property.
She was sentenced by President Judge Kenneth Seamans to serve seven years probation on the arson count; and two years concurrent probation on the endangerment count. She was also ordered to pay nearly $97,000 in restitution to the insurance companies for funds paid out for the fires.
Santarelli, along with her husband Victor Santarelli III, 44, had purchased the property from Alice and Arnold Manning in 2007.
The deed to the Shady Rest Campground was signed over to Alice and Arnold Manning by Tamara and Victor Santarelli as part of a plea agreement in connection to two fires at the campground the Mannings had sold to the couple.
Alice Manning took the stand and directly addressed Santarelli. “In 2007, we sold you, in good faith, a beautiful property with a five-year-old home and a campground you said you wanted very much.”
“Before the first year was out, you had burned the bathroom down for money,” Manning continued. “You did not pay the taxes and did not keep up the mortgage payments.” The Manning’s had financed the sale to the Santarelli’s and then foreclosed after not receiving mortgage payments from the couple.
Manning said to Tamara Santarelli, “You are a wicked and evil person and may God have mercy on your soul.”
Legg said, “The Mannings cannot be satisfied with today’s outcome. The concessions made in the plea agreement are not something I’m happy with.”
As part of the plea deal, charges lodged against Victor Santarelli in connection to the bath house fire will be dropped; and it was agreed that Tamara Santarelli would receive a probationary sentence contingent on the campground property being deeded back to Alice and Arnold Manning.
Following the sentencing Alice Manning said she was happy to have the campground property back, “It’s wonderful to have a little closure after the four years.”
But, she said, Santarelli didn’t receive the punishment she really deserved.
She said her husband and her had been married for 60 years and worked hard to build the campground.
“It’s a shame people like Tamara can scam away all that,” Manning said.
Although the Shady Rest Campground case has reached its conclusion, legal troubles may not be over for the Santarelli’s.
On Feb. 9, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District Court of Pennsylvania announced a grand jury had returned an indictment charging the couple with conspiring to defraud the estate of a deceased aunt.
According to U.S. Attorney Peter J. Smith, the indictment alleges that Tamara and Victor Santarelli engaged in a scheme, May 2006-Aug. 2007, to defraud the Joanne Striminsky estate. Striminsky died January 4, 2007.
The indictment alleges that the Santarelli’s conspired to steal more than $75,000 from the estate. Mail and wire fraud charges were also leveled against the couple.
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