By RUSS OLIVO

WOONSOCKET — A former owner of the Pawtucket Red Sox is facing criminal charges after he allegedly bilked a prominent businessman of more than $30,000, police said.

Phil Anez, 69, of Uxbridge, allegedly tried to repay the victim with worthless checks. Police charged him with one count of writing fraudulent checks in excess of $1,000, a felony.
Anez was arraigned Wednesday in Sixth District Court and is free on personal recognizance pending a hearing on March 17, according to court records.
Anez, of 46 Centennial Court, owned the Pawtucket Red Sox in the mid-1970s, a time when the team was heading into bankruptcy and Anez threatened to move the franchise to New Jersey. In 1976, Anez sold the club to Marvin Adelson, who later sold it to Ben Mondor, the current owner.
Anez is perhaps better known in Greater Woonsocket as the former host of a talk show on radio station WNRI. He fancied himself a political conservative and engaged callers in banter about politics, current events and sports.
“He was extremely conservative and very entertaining,” said Jeff Gamache, WNRI’s news manager. “He was a quick thinker, very witty.”
But station owner Roger Bouchard said WNRI severed ties with Anez in 2007 because he wasn’t paying his bills. Talk show hosts are not employees, but independent agents who buy airtime from the station and are responsible for generating revenue by selling ads. Bouchard, whose freelance column appears in The Call, said Anez still owes the station about $2,000.
The alleged victim in the check fraud case is a well-known real estate broker from the city who asked that his name not be used in this story. The 74-year-old North Smithfield resident said Anez, a lifelong friend, talked him into parting with some $32,000 in cash by telling him  “stories of sick relatives and other sympathetic chronicles.” according to a police report.
The man told police Anez provided an assortment of assurances that he would repay the money, including a series of promissory notes. Anez also wrote him two checks drawn on Citizens Bank in March 2007 that bounced, he told police.
The victim said he originally went to former Police Chief Michael L.A. Houle, who resigned around the time the checks bounced,  in attempts to resolve the problem. At Houle’s request, the man said he gave the former chief the original copies of the bad checks and Houle promised to handle the matter personally.
Police did not learn of Houle’s dealings in the Anez matter until the alleged victim renewed his complaint with police in late November. After contacting Houle, detectives searched for the checks in what is now the office of Police Chief Thomas Carey, but they were unable to find them, according to a police report.
Reached by telephone, the victim said he never questioned why Anez was asking for the money.
“We were childhood friends and I just took him at his word,” the man said. “Maybe he fell on tough times or something.”