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By Elisha Fieldstadt
A lawyer from a New Jersey woman accused of working with a homeless man and her boyfriend using GoFundMe and a heartwarming story for a ploy to get rich quickly said that her client did not Was not aware of the scam and was fooled herself.
"I am confident that the evidence will eventually reveal that Kate had only the best of intentions," said James Gerrow of his client, Kate McClure, 28.
McClure, his boyfriend, Mark D'Amico, 39, and a homeless man, Johnny Bobbitt Jr., 35, were charged last week with second-degree theft by deception and conspiracy to commit a crime. robbery for allegedly running a scam that cheated donors. over $ 400,000.
Gerrow testified that McClure "was used by D'Amico and Bobbitt and that she thought the money would go to a homeless veteran, and she did not know they had concocted this scheme."
The saga began last November when McClure launched a GoFundMe that she said was destined for a homeless person, Bobbitt, who gave him $ 20 last time after a gasoline outage on a ramp. 39, highway to Philadelphia.
More than 14,000 people donated to the campaign, which attracted the attention of the media for what seemed like a heartwarming story.
But history began to spoil when Bobbitt sued the couple in August, claiming that McClure, a receptionist at the New Jersey Department of Transportation, and Amico, a carpenter, had kept the essentials of money for themselves.
Bobbitt's lawyers said he had only received $ 75,000 of the funds raised and claimed that the couple had spent those donations in items such as a BMW and Florida luxury vacations and in Las Vegas.
The couple denied the charges and claimed to have withheld some of the money because he feared Bobbitt would spend it on drugs.
The lawsuit prompted the authorities to review the case.
"The whole campaign was based on a lie," said Scott Coffina, Burlington County, New Jersey attorney, accusing the trio last week.
The prosecutor said McClure had sent a text message to a friend an hour after the start of the campaign, confessing that the story of lack of fuel was false, but that Bobbitt was real. "I had to invent something so that people do not feel good … So, hush for the invented part," said Coffina.
More than 60,000 messages between McClure and Amico were seized in their iPhone, detailing their financial difficulties, including their bills and their debts, and how they began to think of Bobbitt when the idea of the hoax took root, said the prosecutor.
But Gerrow, McClure's attorney, said: "It was only in September, when she met with prosecutors, that she realized that" 39, it had been used by both. "
A lawyer from Amico said Monday that he was surprised by McClure's defense. "I do not know how Kate is playing the victim now, I'll be curious to see how this defense will be played out in front of her," he said.
If they are found guilty, McClure, Amico and Bobbitt can each serve a sentence ranging from five to ten years in jail.
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