Methuen Man to Spend Six Months in Jail for $180K Heav’nly Donuts Theft

Haverhill District Court. (WHAV News file photograph.)

Nicholas Sidie pleaded guilty in Haverhill District Court on Friday. (WHAV News file photograph)

A Methuen man who police say embezzled more than $180,000 from a Haverhill Heav’nly Donuts shop has been ordered to spend six months in jail for the crime.

Nicholas Sidie pleaded guilty in Haverhill District Court Friday and was sentenced to two years in the House of Corrections, according to Essex County District Attorney Jonathan W. Blodgett’s spokeswoman Carrie Kimball. Sidie will spend six months of that time behind bars, with the balance suspended for three years. Sidie was ordered to remain drug and alcohol free and submit to random testing after his release. He also must pay $10,000 in restitution.

As WHAV previously reported, Sidie was arrested by Haverhill Police in June after shorting the doughnut shop on Plaistow Road amounts ranging from $995-$16,975 per month from January 2017 through June 2018.

In a court affidavit, arresting officer Christopher Pagliuca said the shop’s owner was alerted to the theft when payroll checks started bouncing. “Nicholas told him that he was taking the money and that he had a drug problem and told him he was addicted to Oxycontin,” the report stated.

A five-year employee of the doughnut shop, Sidie admitted he spent all of the money. The owner brought criminal charges against Sidie despite the 38-year-old’s father Richard’s request not to involve police. His father’s request for Nicholas to work for free to pay off what he stole was also denied by the owner.

On a court order from Judge Patricia Dowling, Sidie was sent to a 28-day detox program over the summer.