East Windsor Woman Who Changed Name Pleads Guilty to Fraud

NEW HAVEN, CT — An East Windsor woman pleaded guilty Monday to multiple offenses that she committed while awaiting incarceration after a prior federal conviction.

Aliyah Theresa Juliate Davis, 36, formerly known as Theresa Juliate Sutherland, 36, waived her right to indictment and pleaded guilty in New Haven federal court, according to Deirdre M. Daly, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut.

According to court documents and statements made in court, on Dec. 17, 2014, Davis, who was then known as Theresa Sutherland, was sentenced in Hartford federal court to 51 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, for engaging in a fraud and identity theft scheme at an insurance company where she was employed. As part of her sentence, Davis was ordered to pay total restitution of $400,000 to the victim insurance company and three previous employers that she defrauded, Daly said.

Beginning in Jan. 2015, Davis, through her attorney, made five separate motions to postpone her prison report date, based on her claims of a diagnosis of terminal cancer and heart conditions. In association with her court motions, Davis submitted letters from various medical professionals detailing her claimed medical conditions. Davis created the letters and forged the medical professionals’ signatures, and her prison report dates were continued based on these fraudulent submissions, Daly said.

In March 2015, Davis changed her name from Theresa Juliate Sutherland to Aliyah Theresa Juliate Davis, and subsequently received a new Social Security number and Connecticut driver’s license under her new identity, Daly said.

On April 19, 2016, Davis submitted an application for a U.S. passport at the U.S. Postal Service facility on Weston Street in Hartford. On the application where it states “Have you ever applied for or been issued a U.S. Passport Book or Passport Card?” Davis marked an “X” in the “No” box. In 2007, Davis had applied for and received a U.S. passport under her former identity, Daly said.

At various times between Dec. 2014 and Sept. 2016, Davis was employed at a local insurance company and local hospitals. From May 28, 2016 to Sept. 10, 2016, while she was employed at an insurance company and then a hospital under her new identity, Davis received $9,808 in unemployment compensation from the State of Connecticut under her previous identity, Daly said.

Davis pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud, which carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 20 years; one count of knowingly making a false statement on a passport application, which carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 10 years; one count of making a false statement, which carries a maximum term of imprisonment of five years; and one count of aggravated identity theft, which carries a mandatory two-year term of imprisonment, according to Daly.

She has been detained since her arrest on Sept. 17, 2016, and is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton on March 17, 2017.

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