Press Release

EMT INDICTED FOR ALLEGEDLY STEALING BANK CARD FROM PATIENT’S WALLET FOR LIQUOR AND FOOD

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced today that FDNY emergency medical service responder Robert Marshall was indicted by a grand jury and arraigned in Supreme Court for allegedly taking a debit card from the purse of a 79-year-old Springfield Gardens woman when he was working as an EMT on an August 8th ambulance call. The defendant allegedly used the card to charge champagne and food before discarding it.

District Attorney Katz said, “This first responder allegedly used the medical crisis of a senior citizen as an opportunity to steal and indulge himself. When those tasked with helping New Yorkers abuse their positions of trust and hurt New Yorkers, they will be held accountable.”

Marshall, 29, of 114th Street in College Point, Queens, was arraigned yesterday before Queens Supreme Court Justice Toni Cimino on a 12-count indictment charging him with forgery in the second degree, falsifying business records in the first degree, grand larceny in the fourth degree, criminal possession of stolen property in the fourth degree, identity theft in the second and third degree, petit larceny and unlawful possession of personal identification information in the third degree. Justice Cimino set the defendant’s return date for December 16, 2022. If convicted, Marshall faces up to 7 years in prison.

According to the charges, on August 8, 2022, at approximately 9 a.m., the defendant was working as a Fire Department of New York emergency medical responder and entered the home of the victim Barbara Faison near Edgewood Avenue and 230th Avenue in Springfield Gardens. Several days after being transported to a local hospital for medical attention, the victim returned home and realized that a red debit card was missing from the wallet in her purse.

DA Katz said, according to the complaint, video surveillance footage from a liquor store on 20th Avenue in Queens shows the defendant on August 8, 2022, at approximately 6:48 p.m., purchasing two bottles of Moet brand champagne using a red debit card. The same debit card was also used to make purchases at a brick oven pizzeria, a Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant, a Key Food grocery store and a laundromat.

The investigation was conducted by Detective Colin Sparks of the NYPD 105th Precinct Queens Detective Area and Sergeant Kenneth Daly of the Queens District Attorney’s Office Video Surveillance Unit.

Assistant District Attorney Emily Santoro, of the Felony Trials III Bureau, is prosecuting the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Rachel Buchter, Bureau Chief, and Assistant District Attorneys Peter Lomp and Christine McCoy, Deputy Bureau Chiefs, under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Supreme Court Trials Pishoy Yacoub.

**Criminal complaints and indictments are accusations. A defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.