Prison for Mount Vernon Woman Who Stole an ID to Buy Shoes, Pay Cable Bill

MOUNT VERNON, NY —A 30-year-old Mount Vernon woman will serve two to four years in state prison for stealing someone else's identity to pay a cable TV bill and buy some shoes.

She was found guilty in May, following a jury trial, of three charges:

• one count of Identity Theft in the Second Degree: Assume Another’s Identity, a class “E” Felony,
• one count of Unlawful Possession of Personal Identification Information in the Third Degree, a class “A” Misdemeanor,
• one count of Petit Larceny, a class “A” Misdemeanor.

In 2014, between Feb. 20 and 23, Simone Barrett Johnson assumed the identity of the victim, a resident of Ohio. Johnson cost the victim, who earns roughly $400 a week, a financial loss of $533, Acting Westchester County District Attorney James A. McCarty said.

Due to the nature of the theft, that money cannot be credited back to the victim or her credit union, he said.

The information used in the theft was specifically the victim’s Marion Community Credit Union Debit Card number, which was used to pay Johnson’s $181 Time Warner Cable bill and to purchase shoes from NastyGal.com for $342.

The defendant used the victim’s name and home address in Marion, Ohio, as the billing address for the order while using the victim’s name but her own home address, 125 North 6th Ave., Mt. Vernon, New York, as the shipping address to obtain the shoes.

The victim filed a police report with the Marion City Police Department. That report was sent to the Mount Vernon Police Department. The detective assigned to the case was able to track down Johnson by using the email and street addresses used in her shoe purchase. She was subsequently arrested.

Witnesses from Ohio and Kentucky testified at trial.

Johnson, 30, is remanded to the custody of the New York State Department of Corrections. Assistant District Attorney Cheryl Lee of the ID Theft Unit prosecuted the case.