Mom Rips off Young Daughter
 

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. (AP) — Lia Russo Gomez and her nine-year-old daughter survived a plane crash that killed 73 other passengers in 1990, but their good fortune would turn into a tale of betrayal and ultimately forgiveness.

The mother and daughter spent months in the hospital after the Avianca Airlines plane crashed on Long Island, N.Y. Gomez received an $850,000 US settlement, while her daughter, Denise Russo, was awarded $8,315 a month from when she turned 18 until she reached 25.

But Gomez told her daughter the cheques came every two months. She cashed 29 of her daughter’s settlement cheques, keeping more than $241,000 for herself.

Gomez, 56, pleaded guilty to the bank fraud in April. On Wednesday, she was sentenced to one year and a day in jail and was ordered to pay restitution of about $151,000 to the banks and her daughter.

At the time, Russo was a single mother supporting two young children, said her lawyer, Mark Sherman. She only learned of the scheme when her mother forged cheques two months in a row and Russo called her insurance company to find out why she had not received her payment, Sherman said.

U.S. District Judge Janet Hall called Gomez’s offence “extremely serious.”

However, Russo urged the judge not to send her mother to prison, but to instead order her to pay back the money. She said her mother had recently apologized to her.

“Your honour, if it was anyone else besides my mother, I would tell you to impose the maximum sentence,” Russo said in a written statement to the court. “However, she is my mother, the only mother I will ever have, and despite her mistakes, I love her.”

She said after the sentencing that she was upset about the prison time, even though her mother could have faced two years rather than the year and a day she was given.

The New York-bound flight from Medellin, Colombia, crashed into a hillside Jan. 25, 1990 in the Long Island community of Cove Neck.

Federal investigators blamed the crash primarily on the crew.

Re: Mom Rips off Young Daughter
 

I saw a very similar story on Judge Judy! ;)

Re: Mom Rips off Young Daughter
 

As I have so often expressed my opinions on the responsibilities of parents to their children...I'll give this one a pass.


It's not easy.

Re: Mom Rips off Young Daughter
 

You don't shit on your own doorstep, this is just pure greed..

Re: Mom Rips off Young Daughter
 

I have come into this thread now for the third time, and I still have not gained enough control of the fury that rises up in me to post a resonable response to this thread.

Re: Mom Rips off Young Daughter
 

harold...uncontrolled fury *is* a reasonable response to this thread.

Re: Mom Rips off Young Daughter
 

I see nothing to be enraged about…. The mother is doing time for being a cunt, nuff said!

Re: Mom Rips off Young Daughter
 

Conceptually, a parent stealing from a child is difficult to deal with for a lot of people.

Re: Mom Rips off Young Daughter
 

I am a parent, I steal from my son all the time. I spend his state given allowance on what I want. Usually it's another toy but the opportunity is there if I wanted to take advantage.

This thread stinks of "I'm so righteous!" :hmm:

Re: Mom Rips off Young Daughter
 

I don't think it's being self righteous Trev. It's not like the mother was destitute, she got compensation for herself. The checks were over $8,000 a month, even if she had needed some to support her daughter and herself she should have told the kid that some of it would be used for food and clothes, etc., but the majority should not have been touched.

That was nothing but greed on the mother's part.

Re: Mom Rips off Young Daughter
 

Most of the people in this country would be happy to spend a year and a day in prison for $241,000 or even if she does pay back the $151,000 in restitution that still leaves $91,000 which is way way above the average annual income of the American worker! As far as I am concerned a year and a day is far to easy a sentence!

What the hell did this bitch do with her $850,000 settlement that she has to steal from her daughter?