New Canaan Police on Feb. 10 arrested a 36-year-old Bronx, N.Y. woman in connection with the theft and illegal cashing of checks from a local woman more than one decade ago, court documents show.
Authorities became aware of the theft in August 2015, when the daughter of an elderly local woman—88 years old at the time—came to police headquarters saying that several personal checks had been stolen and cashed, according to an arrest warrant application filed by Officer Brian Micena and signed by a state Superior Court judge.
The mother “needed extensive home care for several years and relied on the same person to manage that care,” Micena said in his police affidavit, though that summer the family had taken a vacation where additional coverage was needed on two weekends.
The daughter showed police “two suspicious” Oppenheimer Bank checks totaling $3,500, and found that a total of $8,000 had gone missing from a Bank of America checking account, as well, the arrest warrant application said. In all, about 25 checks had gone missing, and the daughter was able to show police several processed checks made out to unknown people.
The daughter “stated that none of the signatures match [her mom’s] signature and it should be noted, the signatures vary in style and cursive,” Micena said in the application.
A representative from Elder Abuse Social Services contact police and provided contact information for a home-care worker “as a person of interest,” the application said. Police were able to obtain images from the Bank of America Law Enforcement Liaison Team of a woman identified by the home care company as the Bronx woman.
Micena phoned her and told her “the reason for my call was to ask if she would be willing to come to police headquarters and help clarify some information for me,” the arrest warrant application said.
While on the phone, the woman asked “am I going to be arrested when I come in, because if I am, I have to make arrangements for my child,” the affidavit said.
Police then heard from an attorney, who told officers that “his client was involved in a similar federal case and wants to cooperate,” it said. The woman “was involved with several other individuals and would be willing to cooperate and provide a statement about her involvement,” the attorney told Micena. The woman and her attorney came to police headquarters in November 2015 and she provided a voluntary written statement admitting that she had worked as a caregiver to the mother and stole Bank of America and Oppenheimer Funds Trust checks, making them out to various people and forging the mother’s name. The total amount of money in the checks was $18,500. The suspect “stated that she didn’t receive her half of this money as agreed upon by the other parties, and believed that she actually received about $5,000.”
She was charged with first-degree identity theft, second-degree larceny and third-degree forgery.
For some reason, the woman didn’t turn herself in to police until Feb. 10 of this year. She was held on $18,500 bond and scheduled to appear the next day in state Superior Court. According to Connecticut Judicial Branch records, she was released after promising to appear March 30. She has not yet pleaded and is being represented by the public defender, court records show.