SAN ANTONIO – A Dripping Springs lady who decorated her husband’s wartime injuries to perform a years-long fraud scheme in opposition to the federal government has been ordered to seem in federal court docket in San Antonio after a truck she used to be intended to hand over as a part of restitution used to be as a substitute found being pushed by way of a person in Kentucky.
Josephine Perez-Gorda, 40, and the person found in ownership of the truck, Franklin Powell, had been ordered to be in court docket Jan. 15 for a display motive listening to, in accordance to an order signed by way of Judge Fred Biery closing week.
A jury in September 2022 found Perez-Gorda accountable of all 18 counts in opposition to her, which ranged from cord fraud to making false statements comparable to well being care issues and robbery of presidency price range.
For just about six years, from 2011 to 2017, Perez-Gorda falsely informed federal companies that her husband, Army Specialist Justin Perez-Gorda, used to be paralyzed from the stomach button down.
Justin Perez-Gorda suffered a anxious mind damage whilst serving in Afghanistan in early 2011.
While the couple claimed in Veterans Affairs and Social Security bureaucracy that he had misplaced using his decrease extremities, photos accrued by way of federal investigators confirmed Justin Perez-Gorda strolling.
Biery in March sentenced Josephine Perez-Gorda to serve 46 months in jail.
She started serving her sentence this summer time.
She used to be additionally ordered to serve 3 years of group supervision after her liberate and owes greater than $501,000 in restitution.
Perez-Gorda used to be ordered to keep all property
Days after Josephine Perez-Gorda used to be sentenced, DOJ officers moved to freeze her property.
A restraining order filed in her prison case in past due March prohibited Perez-Gorda from shifting, dissipating, leasing or promoting any of her property.
In July, federal government filed bureaucracy to transfer ahead with seizing Josephine Perez-Gorda’s 2021 Ford F250 Super Duty pickup truck.
However, when the individual appointed to take hold of the truck tried to achieve this previous this month, it used to be not at Josephine Perez-Gorda’s house, court docket information display.
Josephine Perez-Gorda’s daughters again and again denied realizing the place the truck used to be situated.
Josephine Perez-Gorda’s counselor in jail later printed to DOJ officers that the truck used to be with Powell in Elkton, Kentucky, north of Nashville, Tennessee.
DOJ officers made a couple of makes an attempt to name and textual content message Powell however he didn’t reply, court docket information display.
The DOJ sooner or later contacted native regulation enforcement in Kentucky, which used to be ready to observe down the truck and acquire proof that Powell used to be in ownership of it.
During Josephine Perez-Gorda’s sentencing, Biery had again and again taken factor together with her movements whilst anticipating trial, together with purchasing a $110,000 truck whilst the prison case in opposition to her used to be ongoing and whilst she used to be represented by way of a court-appointed legal professional.
A supply with the Department of Justice informed on Monday the truck is similar one tracked down by way of government in Kentucky.
The truck has since been returned to federal government, however its resell price has been lowered by way of being taken out of state, court docket information display.
Josephine Perez-Gorda is recently being housed at a federal minimal safety jail camp in Brazos County. Her expected liberate date is August 2026, Federal Bureau of Prisons information display.
Biery’s display motive order calls for Josephine Perez-Gorda to be transferred from the jail to his court docket in San Antonio for the January listening to.
Powell, who has now not been criminally charged, should additionally seem in individual, court docket information display.
Justin Perez-Gorda died whilst in federal custody in Missouri whilst anticipating trial early closing yr.
Copyright 2023 by way of – All rights reserved.
]