BRISTOL — A lawyer who sits on the Tiverton Planning Board is facing a charge of felony shoplifting after allegedly stealing an oil painting valued at $1,800 from a Bristol antiques center.

Frederick C. Stachura, a member of the board since last year, appeared Feb. 27 in District Court, Providence, on one count of larceny over $500. He is due back in court for a pretrial conference April 30 before his arraignment in Superior Court in Providence.

Stachura, 48, of 4089 Main Rd., Tiverton, is accused of stealing the painting on Feb. 21 from the Wooden Horse Gallery, 651 Metacom Ave. The alleged theft was not immediately noticed, but it was captured on a video surveillance system in the store.

Stachura, a preservation consultant and lawyer, is a partner in the Bristol-based Historic Collaborative. He has previously worked as the projects director at the Providence Preservation Society and was a board member of Coggeshall Farm, a living history museum in Bristol.

He has also taught classes in historic preservation at Roger Williams University, in Bristol, but is currently not teaching there. Brian Clark, a spokesman for the university, said he could not comment on Stachura’s employment because it is a personnel matter.

Stachura was appointed to the Tiverton Planning Board in March 2007 to fill the unexpired term of J.P. Wehle who resigned. Stachura’s term expires in June, according to the Tiverton town clerk’s office.

After discovering that the small framed painting — a still-life of red flowers by A.D. Schuler — was missing from the Wooden Horse Gallery, store manager Dennis Mertel reviewed the surveillance recordings and found footage of the theft.

On the recording, at about 2:11 p.m. on Feb. 21, a man walks into the antiques center and goes immediately to the aisle where the Schuler painting is hanging. With his back to one of the surveillance cameras, he lifts the painting off the wall and places it inside his coat. After browsing other parts of the store, he leaves a few minutes later.

Mertel and store owner Nancy Pritchard were in another aisle rearranging merchandise when the incident occurred. Several days later, Pritchard noticed that the Schuler painting was gone even though it had not been sold, Mertel said yesterday.

Mertel said that he recognized the man on the recording, because he suspected that the same man had stolen a pair of antique wick cutters from the store three months earlier. At that time, the man had bought a stool using a credit card. Mertel said he checked the receipt and found the card was in the name of Stachura.

After contacting the Bristol Police Department, he gave officers a photograph of the suspect from the surveillance system and passed along Stachura’s name.

Stachura was asked to come in to the Bristol police station for questioning Feb. 27. He was charged later that day.

This is not Stachura’s first brush with the law.

On May 8, 1995, he pleaded guilty to one count of felony larceny and was placed on probation for one year, according to Journal archives. In that case, he stole 50 law books, valued at $5,000 from the library at the Kent County Court House.

Stachura took the books — stamped “Kent County Law Library” — between Dec. 1, 1992, and June 30, 1993, then sold them to his law firm in Boston, claiming they had been liquidated by the state as surplus.

The law firm, after paying Stachura for the books, learned they were stolen when it made a call to the Rhode Island Department of Library Services. The firm subsequently returned the books to the courthouse library.

Stachura could not be reached for comment.

As for the Schuler painting, the police retrieved it from Stachura’s garage. It’s now hanging back on the wall at the Wooden Horse Gallery.

akuffner@projo.com