Lawyer Attacks Credibility of Ex-Mouseketeer

A federal prosecutor Friday attacked the credibility of former “Mickey Mouse Club” Mouseketeer Darlene Gillespie, who says she unintentionally wrote bad checks to buy thousands of dollars worth of stock.

The Oxnard resident, on trial for alleged stock fraud and obstructing a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation, underwent a second day of intense cross-examination by Assistant U.S. Atty. Jack S. Weiss.

The former child performer, now 57, and her boyfriend, Jerry Fraschilla, 61, also of Oxnard were accused of stiffing stock brokers by issuing checks on accounts that were overdrawn or closed and by creating accounts in the name of a fictitious person.

Fraschilla pleaded guilty and was sentenced last month to 18 months in prison.

Testifying in her own defense earlier this week, Gillespie blamed a former bookkeeper, now dead, for some of the check problems.

She also fixed blame on a former broker at the Los Angeles brokerage firm of Oppenheimer & Co., who, she said, refused to issue an $18,000 check due her from the sale of stock in her account.

As a result, she testified, she wound up issuing a bad check to cover a stock purchase through another brokerage, Advest.

Under cross-examination Friday, however, Weiss confronted Gillespie with five letters she had written to the Oppenheimer broker after the alleged incident, never mentioning the $18,000 that she claimed was due her.