Louis O'Neill

NEW YORK COUNTY, 2 May 2002 - Manhattan District Attorney Robert M. Morgenthau announced today that a Pennsylvania woman, MARY GARCIA, was sentenced by Judge Herbert Altman to two to six years for defrauding people of at least $53,649 in two different schemes.

GARCIA's sentence stems from complaints made at the walk-in desk of the District Attorney's Special Prosecutions Bureau and the New York City Police Department about her. GARCIA admitted stealing $18,800 from six people who lived in her old neighborhood. She promised people that she could deliver leases for NYCHA apartments in a few weeks rather years. She described specific apartments in specific buildings to her "clients", saying that she could provide housing in the Knickerbocker Housing Development along the East River; 265, 275, and 300 Cherry Street; and 60 Baruch Street. She took a security deposit and one month's rent as well as money for "fees". Her victims never received anything after paying for her services and she never returned any money to them.

In the other scheme, GARCIA stole a relative's life savings of $34,849 between 1995 and 2000. She admitted telling him she needed the money for fees in a lawsuit she pretended to handle on his behalf. The defendant persuaded the victim that he could sue Cypress Hills Cemetery and win millions of dollars because the cemetery had moved his brother's gravesite. He withdrew the money that he had saved during 17 years of working in laundries in two lump sums and gave the cash to GARCIA as she requested it. She gave him receipts from money orders, making out the carbon receipts in ink to show fictitious payees and making the top, negotiable portion payable to herself. She cashed the money orders and never initiated any legal proceedings on his behalf.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Louis O'Neill who is assigned to the District Attorney's Special Prosecutions Bureau, under the supervision of Leroy Frazer Jr., Bureau Chief. Detective Antonio Minier of the District Attorney's Squad, under the supervision of Captain Sean Crowley, participated in the investigation.

 

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