Serial harasser accused of shoplifting at Walmart
QUEENSBURY — Michael A. Fuschino, who served state prison time for the serial harassment of several women in the Capital Region, was charged with burglary after police said he shoplifted at a local Walmart that had barred him for past thefts, according to the Warren County Sheriff’s Office.
Fuschino, 57, was charged with petit larceny after he was caught shoplifting from the store on Sunday, deputies said.
Fuschino had been barred in writing from the Route 9 store after previous thefts, deputies said.
Fuschino was being held without bail at the Warren County jail.
Fuschino was sent to state prison in 1999 after he was convicted of serial harassment of a woman in Schenectady County. Earlier that year, he was convicted of several felony counts, including falsifying utility business records. The charges arose from calls he made in September 1997 mimicking a female voice and harassing a woman he met through a telephone dating service.
At the time, he was ordered to serve a prison sentence of 4 to 8 years.
Before that, Fuschino spent about a year in Saratoga County jail for harassing a Ballston Spa woman between 1993 and 1994.
Over the years, Fuschino had his victims’ cars towed and their utilities turned off. He faxed fake obituaries to newspapers. He regularly violated orders of protection but usually received only probation.
He was charged with contempt during the Schenectady County trial after he allegedly called the victim while the jury was contemplating his conviction.
The most recent arrest bears some of the hallmarks of the earlier cases. At his sentencing in the Schenectady County case, Fuschino’s lawyer, Dennis B. Schlenker, said his client suffered from obsessive-compulsive behavior and mild schizophrenia. “He can’t escape from his own being,” Schlenker said.