Wednesday, February 23, 2005
D.A. BROWN: QUEENS CON ARTIST CONVICTED OF POSING AS COURT OFFICIAL AND STEALING $1,500 IN BAIL POSTING SCAM AT QUEENS COURTHOUSE; FACES UP TO FOUR YEARS IN PRISON
Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown today announced the conviction of a Jamaica, Queens woman for posing as a court official and stealing $1,500 from two women seeking to post bail for a relative at the Queens Courthouse in Kew Gardens.
District Attorney Brown said “The defendant has been found guilty by a jury of posing as a court official and conning two female victims out of $1,500 in a bail posting scam perpetrated in front of the Kew Gardens courthouse. The defendant was a con artist who was apprehended as the result of excellent detective work and now faces imprisonment as punishment for her crime.”
The District Attorney identified the defendant as Tania Sisco, 41, of 139-29 Glassboro Avenue in Jamaica, Queens who was convicted yesterday after a two-week jury trial of Grand Larceny in the Fourth Degree, Criminal Impersonation in the Second Degree and Petit Larceny before Queens Supreme Court Justice Roberta L. Dunlop.
District Attorney Brown said that a jury of seven women and five men deliberated two hours before returning the verdict of guilty. The defendant is expected to be sentenced on March 14, 2005 and faces up to four years in prison.
The District Attorney said that according to trial testimony on March 1, 2003 outside the courthouse at Hoover Avenue and Queens Boulevard in Kew Gardens, Queens the defendant approached two women and told them that she worked in Central Booking and could assist them with posting bail. The women accompanied the defendant to a bank, withdrew $1,500 and gave it to her with the understanding that she would post bail and obtain their family member’s release from custody. Instead, the defendant took the money and fled. The family member who had been arrested on a misdemeanor assault charge was subsequently released by the court without having to post any bail. The victims filed a complaint with police and an investigation by Detective Frank Lorelli of the 102nd Precinct Detective Squad led to the defendant’s apprehension on October 29, 2003.
Assistant District Attorney Phyllis C. Weiss of the District Attorney’s Integrity Bureau is prosecuting the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys James M. Liander, Bureau Chief, and Carmencita N. Gutierrez, Deputy Chief, and the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Investigations Peter A. Crusco and Deputy Executive Assistant District Attorney for Investigations Linda M. Cantoni.