May 15, 2007

NEWS: Elderly Woman Forced to Give Up ID

Theresa M. Stanley-Morgan, aged forty-one, of New Port Richey, Florida, stands accused of forcing an elderly housemate to smoke crack so as to manipulate her into giving up personal information so Stanley-Morgan could open a credit card in her name and steal her identity. Shirley Hathaway, aged eighty-three, corroborated a witness’s story that Stanley-Morgan had compelled Hathaway to smoke a lit crack pipe in order to drug her into compliance with opening the account. Hathaway told authorities that Stanley-Morgan had forced the pipe upon her, saying it was full of “hooty,” and that she really had not wanted to smoke it.

Pasco County Sheriff’s office investigators say that Stanley-Morgan admitted that she administered the drug to Hathaway to make her more compliant, and that she then used the card Hathaway opened to make some $3,000 in fraudulent purchases. She opened the account in Hathaway’s name by persuading Hathaway to give up her name, birth date and Social Security number to open the account, a sheriff's report said. Stanley-Morgan was being held in lieu of $23,000 bail as of last week, and faced charges of criminal use of personal identification, use of another person's ID without permission and retail theft, according to jail records. The PCSO stated that more charges against Stanley-Morgan were pending, and that they had petitioned the court specifically to not reduce her bail.


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