Accused thief sought after skipping her trial date
MEDIA COURTHOUSE » Common Pleas Court Judge Mary Alice Brennan has issued a bench warrant for an Upper Darby woman accused of stealing almost $120,000 from a neighbor after she failed to appear for a trial date.
Megan Kelleher, 35, of the
4900 block of State Road in Drexel Hill, did not show for a scheduled hearing before Brennan Tuesday and her attorney, Vincent Davalos, told the judge he had not heard from her Monday or Tuesday before the warrant was issued.
Davalos did not return a call Wednesday afternoon asking whether Kelleher had been in touch, but Assistant District Attorney Erica Parham said she was not alerted to any new developments by Wednesday afternoon.
Kelleher turned herself in to police in December 2018 on charges that she stole nearly
$120,000 from the bank accounts of a 73-year-old woman she had befriended at her apartment complex between July 2017 and November 2018.
She was initially charged with 750 felony counts of identity theft, one for each alleged ATM transaction she made with the victim’s bank card, as well as felony charges of forgery, theft by unlawful taking, theft by deception, receiving stolen property and access device fraud and a misdemeanor charge of possession of access device knowing it was counterfeit or altered.
Kelleher had befriended her wheelchair-bound neighbor and they formed a friendship, according to an affidavit of probable cause for her arrest. Kelleher had access to a safe in the other woman’s apartment, where the alleged victim kept an unactivated check card from her bank, the affidavit states.
Kelleher allegedly activated the card and used it to take more than $40,000 from the woman’s savings account and $76,000 from a checking account. Surveillance footage recovered by police allegedly showed Kelleher making 10 transactions at a Wells Fargo Bank branch in one day.
Kelleher posted 10 percent of
$100,000 bail following a preliminary arraignment before Magisterial District Judge Christopher Maddox Dec. 4, 2018, according to online court records. Magisterial District Judge Robert Radano increased the bail amount by another $100,000 following a hearing on Feb. 12,
2019, and Kelleher posted an additional 10 percent seven days later.
A second pending case brought in December 2019 also alleges eight separate counts including theft, forgery, identity theft and filing a fraudulent insurance claim for offenses allegedly committed in July 2017, according to online court records.
Kelleher was scheduled to appear for trial in both cases Tuesday. The COVID-19 pandemic has put all jury trials in the county on hold until at least November, however, according to the most recent directive issued by Common Pleas Court President Judge Kevin F. Kelly.
She was initially charged with 750 felony counts of identity theft, one for each alleged ATM transaction she made with the victim’s bank card, as well as felony charges of forgery, theft by unlawful taking, theft by deception, receiving stolen property and access device fraud and a misdemeanor charge of possession of access device knowing it was counterfeit or altered.