Fugitive nabbed: New bail set in $120G theft
MEDIA COURTHOUSE » An Upper Darby woman who missed a court appearance on charges that she stole almost $120,000 from a neighbor was given new bail Tuesday after being picked up on a bench warrant.
Megan Kelleher, 35, of the 4900 block of State Road in Drexel Hill, was scheduled to appear before Common Pleas Court Judge Mary Alice Brennan Sept. 15 but never showed. She was taken into custody that Friday and claimed to have been in a car accident, defense attorney Vincent Davalos told Brennan Tuesday.
Kelleher was unable to get documentation confirming the accident before she was picked up on the warrant, according to Davalos. Assistant District Attorney Erica Parham noted Kelleher’s family members were not precluded from getting that documentation, but she has not been provided with anything yet.
Parham indicated the commonwealth has been trying to work with Kelleher, but with disappointing results so far.
Parham said the case was continued so Kelleher could sell her house and make other moves toward restitution. Parham also said she was previously told a payment had been made to court financial services, but later discovered that was not true. Kelleher was supposed to bring an additional $3,000 payment with her on Sept. 15, Parham noted.
Kelleher had already missed a July date and claimed at that time to have contracted COVID-19, but Parham said she has not seen documentation from her doctor for that absence either.
Davalos said he had shown Parham emails from Kelleher’s doctor and that he had been told a check was mailed to court financial services.
Kelleher turned herself in to police in December 2018 on charges that she stole nearly $120,000 from the bank accounts of a 73-yearold 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, according to an affidavit of probable cause for her arrest. Kelleher had access to a safe in the other woman’s apartment, where the victim kept an unactivated check card from her bank, the affidavit states.
Kelleher allegedly acti
vated 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.
Brennan set new bail Tuesday at 10% of $150,000 in one case and 10% of $100,000 in the other with conditions of electronic home monitoring on both. Davalos also reported that Kelleher is now requesting a jury trial. Jury trials have been suspended due to the pandemic and it is unclear at this point when they might resume.
Brennan set the next hearing date for Oct. 20, but warned that if the jury trial was a delay tactic, that would be taken into account at sentencing if Kelleher is convicted.