MOUNT HOLLY, NJ – A New Jersey woman pleaded guilty to helping her boyfriend spread a touching story about a homeless veteran collected over $400,000 in online donations was sentenced to three years in prison on state theft charges.
Katelyn McClure, who pleaded guilty to helping her boyfriend spread a touching story about a homeless veteran who raised more than $400,000 in online donations, has been sentenced to three years in prison on burglary charges. state theft.
Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office via AP
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Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office via AP
Katelyn McClure, who pleaded guilty to helping her boyfriend spread a touching story about a homeless veteran who raised more than $400,000 in online donations, has been sentenced to three years in prison on burglary charges. state theft.
Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office via AP
Burlington County prosecutors said Katelyn McClure, 32, was not in the Mount Holly courtroom Friday because she was serving a one-year federal term in the case. Her state prison term will run concurrently and the former transportation department employee will be barred from working again as a New Jersey public servant.
Prosecutors said McClure and her then-boyfriend, Mark D’Amico, devised the good Samaritan story in November 2017, claiming that homeless veteran Johnny Bobbitt Jr. gave McClure the last $20 when her car ran out of gas on the interstate driveway in Philadelphia.
Prosecutors said the three conducted newspaper and television interviews and solicited donations, ostensibly to help Bobbitt, through a GoFundMe campaign they dubbed “Paying It Forward.” Prosecutors said the campaign raised more than $400,000 from about 14,000 donors in about a month, and at the time was the largest scam ever carried out through the crowdfunding platform.
Authorities began investigating after Bobbitt sued the couple, accusing them of not giving him money. Ultimately, they determined that all the money was spent in March 2018, with large sums spent by McClure and D’Amico on a recreational vehicle, a BMW, and trips to the casino in Las Vegas and New Jersey.
D’Amico, 43, pleaded guilty in December 2019 and was sentenced to five years in state prison, a term that also applies to an earlier federal term. He and McClure were both required to refund GoFundMe in full. Bobbitt has been sentenced to federal and state probation.
