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Katelyn McClure, 32, of Bordentown will be released in July after completing a federal sentence at a low-security prison in Danbury, CT, for scamming well-meaning donors out of $400,000 to purportedly help a homeless veteran.
At that point, the year and a day federal sentence will be deducted from her state term and a determination will be made whether she should be paroled.
McClure made out better than her former boyfriend, Mark D'Amico, who concocted the slimy scheme.
D'Amico has been serving a federal stretch of 27 months in the medium-security United States Penitentiary in Lewisburg, PA.
Once that’s done, a judge at the Burlington County Courthouse in Mount Holly will determine how much of a five-year state sentence he must serve.
There’s no parole in the federal prison system, but there’s plenty of wiggle room in New Jersey’s.
So state prosecutors took a pause to let the U.S. Attorney’s Office for New Jersey do its thing before bringing their case home.
D'Amico admitted hatching the bogus feel-good yarn about a down-on-his-luck "hero" coming to McClure’s rescue after she ran out of gas on Route 95 on her way home to New Jersey from Philadelphia in 2017.
Both McClure and the homeless man, Johnny Bobbitt Jr., were in on the scheme, it turned out.
Together, D’Amico and McClure created a crowd-sourcing fundraising campaign on GoFundMe that they called "Paying It Forward.” The campaign set a $10,000 goal to help get Bobbitt off the streets and cover some of his initial living expenses.
They even used a photo that D’Amico took of McClure and Bobbitt standing near a Route 95 off-ramp in Philadelphia.
The bogus tale of Bobbitt giving McClure his last 20 bucks was quickly picked up by local and national news outlets. There was even an appearance on NBC's "Megyn Kelly Today" show.
Donations blew by the initial 10-grand goal in a blink. The schemers gathered $400,000 in donations in less than a month.
SEE: NJ Man Admits Hatching $400,000 Homeless GoFundMe Scam
The couple paid it sideways instead of forward, shifting the GoFundMe dough into accounts that they controlled.
It took them barely three months to spend most of it on a BMW, a New Year’s trip to Vegas, a chopper ride over the Grand Canyon and "other personal items and expenses," as federal authorities put it.
McClure did help Bobbitt open an account of his own. Then they gave him $25,000 – a smidge over 15%.
The scheme collapsed when Bobbitt turned around and sued the couple, demanding to know where the rest of the money went.
D’Amico and McClure accused Bobbitt of spending tens of thousands of dollars on drugs, legal bills and donations to his family in less than two weeks. They said they also bought him a camper.
Right.
The Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office and Florence Township police began poking around, obtaining search warrants to seize various pieces of evidence. Then the feds jumped in.
At the time, it was the biggest scam ever pulled through GoFundMe. The crowdfunding company voluntarily reimbursed all of the donors.
McClure, like D’Amico, must fully reimburse GoFundMe under the terms of her plea deal with the feds. The former state Department of Transportation worker is also permanently barred from ever having public employment again.
SEE: NJ Woman Who Pulled $400,000 GoFundMe Scam With Homeless Vet, Ex-BF Gets Federal Prison Time
For his part, Bobbitt got good deals from both federal and state prosecutors.
Judges in both cases spared him prison time. A federal judge knocked a three-year sentence down to probation, which state authorities went with, as well.
Bobbitt must comply with a strict state drug treatment and recovery program – which includes frequent drug testing – in order to remain free.
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