Disbarred woman faces larceny charge

A Baldwin woman who was disbarred in 2010 faces a new larceny charge in connection with the theft of more than $85,000 from a former client whom she helped secure a reverse financial mortgage, the Nassau district attorney’s office said.

Janice Jessup, 68, was charged with second-degree grand larceny, a Class C felony, second-degree criminal possession of a forged instrument (a D felony) and falsifying business records (an E felony), the office said in a statement.

Jessup surrendered to the office last Tuesday. District Court Judge Paul Meli ordered a continuation of her electronic monitoring, and she was released on her own recognizance. A call to her attorney, Ira Weissman, was not returned. She is scheduled to return to court later this month.

Acting District Attorney Madeline Singas said in the statement that Jessup was retained in 2008 by a disabled woman, then age 85, who wanted to obtain a reverse mortgage on her house in Roosevelt. Jessup obtained the reverse mortgage that year. The funds were to pay for the woman’s care in a nursing facility.

But in 2010, Jessup was disbarred after she submitted her resignation while facing a disciplinary proceeding alleging a number of charges of professional misconduct, Singas said. Despite that, Jessup obtained a power of attorney purportedly bearing the signature of her former client in 2011. The document gave Jessup the power to control the victim’s finances, Singas said.

According to Singas, in 2012, Jessup, who also uses the married name Janice Jones, requested from Wells Fargo Bank, and received, an additional line of credit in the victim’s name. Singas said Jessup submitted documentation to the bank certifying that the victim continued to live at the Roosevelt address, even though she was in a nursing care facility in Rockville Centre since 2008. Then Jessup sought additional reverse mortgage funding with a line of credit of $47,647, Singas said. Those funds, along with other funds belonging to the elderly woman, all were stolen by Jessup, Singas said. The total was more than $85,000.

Singas said the money was used to benefit Jessup and her then-husband and his business, Legacy Limousines, and as partial payment for a 1985 Chevrolet Corvette in her husband’s name. Jessup is also alleged to have forged a check payable to Legacy Limousine that was purportedly signed by the son of the elderly disabled victim.

Jessup, who also lives in Charlotte, N.C., was indicted in April in a separate case in which she is accused of stealing $1.2 million from a disabled client, the prosecutor’s office said.

In that case, the district attorney’s office alleged that Jessup stole the money from a physically and mentally disabled client whose property was taken over by the government in an eminent domain action. The property was later converted to the Yes We Can community center in Westbury. Singas’ office said Jessup received the funds by court order as the attorney for her client. She is accused of spending the money on various unauthorized personal and business expenses.