Boonton Woman Stole $500K From Bloomfield Cop And His Mom: ECPO

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — A Boonton woman was sentenced to three years in New Jersey state prison after she stole more than $500,000 from her 80-year-old mother-in-law and her husband, a police detective in Bloomfield, prosecutors announced Monday.

According to the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, authorities had sought four years in prison for Patricia Layton Piccinno, 50, of Boonton, but a Superior Court judge imposed a three-year sentence instead.

Piccinno was also ordered to pay restitution to both her husband and mother-in-law. For her mother-in-law, she was ordered to pay back $208,503, and to her husband, she was ordered to pay back $127,315, although the values of the thefts were greater, prosecutors said.

Piccinno was also required to forfeit the vehicle seized in this case, a 2012 Jeep Liberty, prosecutors said.

Essex County prosecutors offered the following description of the case:

“From September 2013 to January 2018, Piccinno stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from her husband of nearly 20 years and her widowed mother-in-law. She stole, hid and stopped mail so her husband would not discover her crimes. She also stole and diverted monies without his knowledge or consent. She opened a post office box in her mother-in-law’s name and had mail go to her residence instead. Piccinno opened and racked up credit cards in both victim’s names. She stole large amounts of jewelry from both victims, some of which was recovered at pawn shops. She withdrew all of her mother-in-law’s monies in her savings and checking accounts, as well as from her insurance and investment accounts, forged checks and stole pension and Social Security checks. She created fake emails to cover her stories, created fake stationary from a certified public accountant to pretend that the CPA did work for her mother-in-law when in fact he never did. She doctored and altered bank statements, so they would reflect a higher balance, added Assistant Prosecutor Teller. She also altered her mother-in-law’s 1099 tax return.”

Piccinno was indicted and charged with multiple counts, including first-degree money laundering, second degree theft, impersonation, forgery and falsifying and tampering with records.

On Oct. 28, 2018, Piccinno pleaded guilty to 10 out of 12 counts of the indictment, including identity theft from her mother-in-law, multiple counts of impersonation of her mother-in-law and her husband, forgery, theft by deception, credit card theft and tampering with records, prosecutors said.

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