The New Jersey woman accused of conspiring with her boyfriend and a homeless veteran to run a $400,000 GoFundMe scam has been suspended from her state job with the Department of Transportation.
Katelyn McClure, from Trenton, was a receptionist at DOT and a spokeswoman confirmed Wednesday that McClure is on ‘suspension status’.
The representative declined to say whether with she was being paid or unpaid during the time out of office.
Katelyn McClure (right) has been suspended from her job after claiming boyfriend Mark D’Amico (center) duped her into taking part in the GoFundMe scam where they raised $400,000 with a fake story about homeless veteran Johnny Bobbitt (left)
McClure and her boyfriend Mark D’Amico have split since they got in trouble for the crowdfunding scam. McClure has now turned against her ex and shared secret audio to help
McClure, 28, was being paid around $43,000 per year for the role she started in 2014, reports NJ.com.
‘I told Kate this was inevitable once the charges had been made public by the Prosecutor,’ her lawyer James Gerrow told the publication. ‘Unfortunately, it is standard operating procedure for a governmental entity. Yet, it adds to the traumatizing impact this case has had on Kate.’
McClure and her former boyfriend, Mark D’Amico, are charged with conspiracy and theft by deception.
A warrant for D’Amico’s arrest was issued Monday after he did not show up to a trespassing hearing.
His grandmother, Leslie DeAngelo, claims he changed the locks and refused to vacate her property which was raided by law enforcement in September.
Authorities allege they conspired with Marine vet Johnny Bobbitt, 34, to concoct a feel-good story about Bobbitt giving McClure his last $20 when her car ran out of gas.
They raised hundreds of thousands of dollars which authorities say was spent on luxury items and casino trips.
Bobbitt – the homeless man they actually met at a Philadelphia casino – also faces charges.
McClure’s lawyer has said she was duped by D’Amico, 39, and released a secret audio recording that she claims prove her innocence.
D’Amico’s lawyer,Mark Davis, denied the claims he duped her, saying: ‘She seems to be on a crusade to save her ass at the moment, I assume because her name is on everything.’
The recording was made on September 2, after Bobbitt sued the couple, claiming they were raiding his funds and throwing the scheme into jeopardy.
‘You started the whole f**king thing, you did everything. I had no part in any of this and I’m the one f**king taking the fall,’ McClure is heard saying in the audio released to Good Morning America, which could not be independently verified.
In November 2017, McClure and D’Amico created the GoFundMe campaign supposedly to benefit Bobbitt, who they claimed was living under a bridge and had spent his last $20 to help McClure when she ran out of gas.
McClure shot video supposedly of the moment Bobbitt bought her the gas, and went on to do numerous television interviews peddling the fake story, until all three were arrested last week.
McClure’s attorney Gerrow told GMA that D’Amico was ‘calling the shots’ in the alleged scheme.
‘People have to understand that this was an abusive relationship. Mr. D’Amico was the one behind this and he was the one calling all the shots,’ Gerrow said.
‘She didn’t understand or appreciate that this may very well be a crime,’ the attorney said.
In the secret audio, D’Amico is heard telling McClure: ‘You don’t go to jail for lying on TV, you dumb b***h.’
‘You heard what he said, if this turns into a criminal thing,’ McClure responds. D’Amico repeats: ‘You don’t go to jail for lying on TV.’
‘But who made me lie on TV?’ the girlfriend says. D’Amico replies: ‘Who cares?’
At another point in the recording, D’Amico is heard lambasting McClure as anything but innocent: ‘How much did you spend in Cali? $2,500? [unintelligible] $3,700? So just right there is $40,000, now you wanna talk about everything else? You act like you didn’t spend a dollar.’
McClure responds: ‘I never said that I didn’t spend a dollar.’
McClure (left) claimed homeless veteran Johnny Bobbitt (right) helped her when she ran out of gas. But prosecutors say she and D’Amico actually met him at a Philadelphia casino
The scam came crashing down last week, when New Jersey prosecutors announced that McClure, D’Amico and Bobbitt had all been charged with second-degree theft by deception and conspiracy to commit theft by deception.
‘Less than an hour after the GoFundMe campaign went live, McClure, in a text exchange with a friend, stated that the story about Bobbitt assisting her was ‘completely made up’,’ Burlington County prosecutor Scott Coffina told a press conference.
The couple claimed to be setting up the GoFundMe page for Bobbitt (left)
‘I had to make something up to make people feel bad,’ McClure said in a text – one of 60,000 reviewed by prosecutors – to a friend.
In one text exchange in March 2018, McClure worried that she and D’Amico had less than $10,000 remaining, but D’Amico wasn’t concerned as he believed they’d make more money off a book deal for a titled pitched as No Good Deed, Coffina said.
Coffina added: ‘She did not run out of gas on an I-95 off-ramp, and he did not spend his last $20 to help her.’
The prosecutor added: ‘D’Amico, McClure and Bobbitt conspired to fabricate and promote a feel-good story that would compel donors to contribute to their cause.’
A spokesman for the prosecutor’s office said they would be seeking jail sentences ‘of some length’ which could be between five and 10 years.
Bobbitt was arrested Wednesday night by US marshals in Philadelphia and remained in custody Thursday on probation detainers and a $50,000 bond. A message was left with a previous attorney of Bobbitt’s.
D’Amico, 39, and McClure surrendered to authorities Wednesday night and were released on bond.
On Friday, McClure’s lawyer revealed that she had split with D’Amico.
‘They are not living together anymore and she’s not taking his calls,’ attorney James Gerrow told Fox 29.
Asked whether McClure believes D’Amico betrayed her, the lawyer said there was ‘no question about that’.
Gerrow said McClure tried twice to meet with law enforcement to stop the scam and when she tried to halt the fundraising, GoFundMe did not allow it.
‘Kate was being used by both Mr. D’Amico and Mr. Bobbitt and because D’Amico knew she was a very kind person also a bit naïve they set up,’ Gerrow said.
He added about her reluctance to reveal the scam after they appeared on the likes of Good Morning America speaking about the Good Samaritan and promoting their crowdfunding page: ‘What she was concerned about is people will stop giving to causes like this because at her core, she wanted to help this man.’
It all went wrong for the trio when Bobbitt filed a civil case against the couple, which has been put on hold until December while an investigation into potential criminal proceedings related to the raised money plays out, DailyMailTV learned.
Then authorities believed something was amiss in the story Bobbitt told them
The couple have shared photos on social media of themselves taking a helicopter ride and a trip to Disney during luxury vacations to Las Vegas and LA. The trio also posed for pictures with another woman in New York
In the civil suit, Bobbitt says they used the account as a ‘personal piggy bank’ to ‘fund a lifestyle they could not otherwise afford’. It led to authorities searching the couple’s home in September and finding lavish belongings.
The couple have shared photos on social media of themselves taking a helicopter ride and a trip to Disney during luxury vacations to Las Vegas and LA. They also posted pictures of shopping sprees and front-row seats at a Broadway show.
The homeless veteran sued the couple who he said hadn’t given him all the money they should have
They insisted that they had done nothing wrong and had not spent a single dollar on themselves.
D’Amico, 39, did admit to spending $500 from the fundraising campaign at SugarHouse Casino in Philadelphia, though he insists he paid it all back with his winnings.
D’Amico had previously said the couple believed Bobbitt shouldn’t get the money until he was clean and would spend it responsibly, while the couple have shared photos on social media of themselves taking a helicopter ride and a trip to Disney during luxury vacations to Las Vegas and LA.
He told The Philadelphia Inquirer in September: ‘Giving him all that money, it’s never going to happen. I’ll burn it in front of him.’
But the entire story – including Bobbitt’s innocence – was a complete lie a prosecutor said Thursday. They realized something was amiss among the details which hinted at Bobbitt’s involvement.
GoFundMe plans to reimburse the 14,000 donors, who contributed $403,000 to the November 2017 campaign, the prosecutor said.
He said the money donated to the homeless man, Bobbitt, would be refunded to people who saw the story and contributed to him through the GoFundMe page.
Originally aiming for just $10,000, the money was supposed to be spent on a home and a truck for Bobbitt, as well as a trust and retirement fund.
‘The entire campaign was predicated on a lie,’ the prosecutor Coffina said. ‘It was fictitious and illegal and there are consequences.’
Prosecutors released a detailed timeline of the case, including when they concocted the story (October 2017), the amount of money transferred from GoFundMe to their personal bank accounts, and the the trips they went on with the cash