‘It shouldn’t have ended this way, but it did,’ town supervisor says
Disgraced official’s suicide shocks Marilla
Just a few hours after former Town of Marilla Highway Superintendent David H. Pierce was sentenced Monday to seven months in federal prison for stealing from the town, he headed out to his parents’ farmhouse on Four Rod Road in his pickup truck.
He told his family he was going to do some yard work on the property.
When he failed to return home, his family set out to look for him.
They found a note at the farmhouse. Half a mile away, they spotted his pickup. In the back was his body, with a single gunshot wound to his head.
“It shouldn’t have ended this way,” said Marilla Supervisor George J. Gertz, “but it did. And there is nothing I can do to change it.”
The news that Pierce, 55, had taken his life stunned and saddened the residents of Marilla, where Pierce had held his position for nearly 20 years and his family was widely known and liked.
Many residents of the small farming community were unwilling to talk publicly about Pierce on Tuesday. They had known him, his wife and his family for years. Some had gone to school with him. Others played golf with him.
Most simply shook their heads when asked about his apparent suicide. They used words such as “tragedy” and “shock” as they discussed Pierce’s death at the post office, the Marilla General Store, Marilla Grill and on Bullis and Two Road roads.
Pierce’s death came as a surprise even though he had tried to harm himself before.
In February, just after FBI agents interviewed him amid a probe into irregularities in the Highway Department, Pierce “went berserk,” in Gertz’s words back then.
Pierce crashed and abandoned two town trucks. He left one in a ditch in Sheldon in Wyoming County with its undercarriage damaged. The other was found smashed into a utility pole on Three Rod Road.
Pierce was then found unconscious on the floor of his living room. Volunteer firefighters took him to Erie County Medical Center, where he remained hospitalized for the next week. On Monday, his attorney, Anthony J. Lana, revealed in court that Pierce had attempted suicide that day with alcohol and prescription drugs.
Federal investigators had uncovered evidence that Pierce had received thousands of dollars in kickbacks from a Springville businessman, Ronald Wells, who supplied snowplow blades to his department, a scheme that went on for five years.
Agents also discovered that Pierce had used town employees to build a large fishing and swimming pond on his family’s property on Four Rod Road.
After he was released from the hospital, Pierce resigned from his post.
He admitted the crimes and turned over $11,800 to the federal government. In April, he pleaded guilty to felony embezzlement.
His accomplice, Wells, was sentenced to probation last month and ordered to repay $16,000.
At Monday’s sentencing hearing, Pierce apologized before U. S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara.
He said his problems with alcoholism, anxiety, depression and greed led him to steal from his town.
“There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t regret the bad decisions that put me here,” Pierce told the judge.
He also lamented that he had disgraced his family name. He spoke in court about his 80- year-old father, Harold, who died a year ago in a traffic accident in Wyoming County. His mother was seriously injured in the same accident.
Pierce said it pained him to know how ashamed his father would be if he had learned about his criminal activity.
Arcara scolded Pierce for his illegal actions and pointed out that he had received some extremely angry letters from Marilla taxpayers who felt Pierce deserved strong punishment for stealing town funds.
He could have sentenced him to home confinement or up to a full year behind bars. Arcara sentenced him to seven months in federal prison and ordered him to pay back $20,700 to the town.
But Arcara also told Pierce he believed he was remorseful.
“This man was very apologetic,” Arcara said Tuesday. “You could see he was in true remorse for the shame he caused his family.”
Arcara said he was shocked by the death. “He said he had stopped drinking and was making positive changes in his life and preparing for the future, after prison,” Arcara said Tuesday. “I feel terrible for his family.”
Pierce’s attorney said he believed his client had turned his life around in recent months.
“He seemed to be doing quite well, by all accounts,” Lana said. “He was sober since Feb. 13 [the day he was hospitalized] . . . was attending church on a regular basis.”
Pierce was also receiving counseling and taking medication for mental health issues.
Arcara had allowed Pierce to go home indefinitely before beginning his seven-month sentence.
“The way we had left it, I told him what his options were post-conviction,” Lana said, “but not to make any decisions right away. To sleep on it.”
News Staff Reporter Dan Herbeck contributed to this report.
