Kimberly Brodasky says she was turning her life around when she met Jacqueline Forcier. Now Brodasky is in jail and her friend is nowhere around.
By JOE BLACK
Published June 24, 2004
BROOKSVILLE - If it wasn't for that stolen, suped-up pressure washer from Publix, Kimberly Brodasky thinks she wouldn't be in Hernando County Jail right now.
The woman, suspected in burglary and arson, says she wouldn't have been strung out on heroin for days, obsessively watching Channel 9 News and waiting to see what sheriff's deputies would do after they had questioned her.
She probably would have been able to visit her best friend in Connecticut, who is in the hospital after a near-fatal car accident.
If it wasn't for that pressure washer, Brodasky, 33, said in a recent telephone interview, investigators for the Sheriff's Office wouldn't have linked her to a burglary and theft spree that could send her to prison for more than 20 years. And while Brodasky waits behind bars, authorities said her alleged accomplice, Jacqueline Forcier, roams free.
Investigators have charged Brodasky with 19 counts - one arson, nine grand theft, eight burglary and one possession of drug paraphernalia. With Forcier, Brodasky is accused of breaking into dozens of homes, businesses and construction sites. Investigators think more than 90 locations were broken into.
Forcier's brother, Richard, 41, of Hudson also was arrested in a handful of burglaries. He posted a $20,000 bail on June 4.
According to authorities, Jacqueline Forcier fled after she told deputies she took part in some of the burglaries. She is thought to be in St. Petersburg.
"She's probably sitting on the . . . beach and I'm sitting here," Brodasky said. "I've lost everything. Am I remorseful? Oh yes. Do I wish I could go back and never done this? Yes."
Striking up a friendship
In months leading to May 2002, Brodasky said she was trying to put her life back together after years as a heroin "junkie" in New York and Connecticut. For five years, Brodasky said, she was clean.
But she drank on May 2, 2002, and was pulled over by Citrus County deputies. She was sentenced to three months for driving under the influence, state records show.
A few weeks later, while waiting in Hernando County Jail on a parole violation, she met Forcier.
At the time, Forcier, now 39, seemed nice enough so Brodasky struck up a conversation by offering her a cigarette. Soon they were confined together. Forcier told Brodasky about the businesses she had in Virginia and about her family. Brodasky said she later learned all that proved to be lies.
In August 2003, the two were released from jail. Brodasky moved in with Forcier on Treehaven Drive. She later rented a home on Copperfield Drive, a few blocks away, but spent most of her time with Forcier.
For weeks they lived happily together, but both were addicted to crystal methamphetamine and needed money for food, drugs and rent. Forcier had been convicted of burglary before and the two figured they could make easy money by stealing here and there, Brodasky said.
There was never any wild scheme, Brodasky said. Almost everything was done at random, picking off places when they got the chance. Because her case is still pending, Brodasky won't say how the locks were picked or which places were broken into.
"It's not very hard if you have a brain," she said.
Hernando Sheriff Richard Nugent said the two women took everything that wasn't nailed down when they broke into largely vacant places. Last Friday and Saturday, detectives opened a storage room filled with items recovered from the burglary spree. Included were laptop computers, CDs, ceiling fans and ceramic lawn ornaments. Paintings and dish washers rested near televisions and power tools. Investigators estimate about $150,000 worth of property had been stolen.
"Now that I'm not high, I can't believe (how much we stole)," Brodasky said. "I'm just in shock, at the time nothing seemed like a big deal at all."
Going for quick cash
In April, Brodasky and Forcier's relationship became strained. Still, when Forcier needed help paying for her probation that month, Brodasky helped. She said she stole the power washer and pawned it for quick cash.
She knew it was a stupid decision, but her friend needed to pay her bill.
"If I had never pawned that pressure washer I would not be sitting here," Brodasky said. "I told her on the phone, "This is it. This is going to hang me.' . . .. She just wanted her probation paid."
Days after trading in the power washer, the serial number showed it was stolen. Deputies began questioning both women.
Brodasky said she wouldn't tell investigators much more than her name. She was confident Forcier would take the same approach.
"If she hadn't opened her mouth, I would have been caught for that pressure washer and that's it," she said.
But deputies kept pushing, Brodasky said. They offered both women the same deal: "Talk and we'll let you go."
Forcier was released on her own recognizance. On May 25, she invited them on a tour of her house, investigators said.
Forcier claimed some of the items scattered through the house were priceless family heirlooms. Later investigators said she told them much of what she had shown was stolen, including some paintings that were reportedly taken from a family's storage room by Forcier and her brother.
Shortly after her talk with sheriff's officials, Forcier left town.
Brodasky said Forcier had promised to bail her out. But each day when bails were announced, Brodasky never heard her name.
Soon, she began talking with deputies.
- Times researcher Catherine Wos contributed to this report.
