Harmony’s stepmom offered plea deal in benefits cheat case
Prosecutors have offered a plea deal to the New Hampshire woman accused of claiming her missing stepdaughter, Harmony Montgomery, as a dependent to fraudulently receive extra welfare benefits from the state.
The details of the plea agreement made recently by prosecutors to Kayla Montgomery, 31, were not disclosed at the short dispositional conference held Thursday morning in the Northern District courthouse of Hillsborough County Superior Court, nor when the deal was offered.
A status hearing has been set for June 9 to see if the deal will be accepted. The date is tentative as both the defense attorney and prosecutor have trial dates around that time and may have to reschedule.
Montgomery was indicted on a felony charge of theft by deception on March 22. She is accused of receiving more than $1,500 in New Hampshire state aid for Harmony’s benefit from Nov. 30, 2019, to June 2, 2021, a time period in which Harmony was already missing.
The discovery process for evidence in the case is “for the most part complete” and has already grown to nearly 3,500 pages of material and 70 to 80 “media discs,” prosecutor Jesse O’Neill said at the hearing.
Since the case against Montgomery hinges on the whereabouts of Harmony, who went missing in late November or early December 2019 at the age of 5, discovery will continue to mount as the parallel missing person investigation continues.
Due to the sheer size of the discovery, defense attorney Paul Garrity asked for 60 days to review the evidence and consider the plea offer, which he said has already been countered. O’Neill said he had no problem with that timeline because “that’s a lot of discovery” to analyze.
Adam Montgomery, 32, father to Harmony and estranged husband to Kayla, waived an arraignment in a case unrelated to Harmony’s disappearance on Wednesday and is being held in jail. A reward fund to find Harmony is up to at least $150,000.