Stratford psychic charged with defrauding client out of $50,000

BRIDGEPORT — Jail may be in the cards for a Stratford fortune teller after police said she was accused of taking more than $50,000 from a local woman to eliminate the woman’s “negative energies.”

Sherry Frank, 51, who operates as the Paradise Psychic from her Main Street home, was charged with second-degree larceny.

She was released after posting a $50,000 bond pending arraignment in Superior Court on Nov. 16.

“I surrendered, I walked into the police department, but I’m puzzled about what this is about,” Frank told Hearst Connecticut Media. “It was a lot of work and she paid for my services.”

Stratford police said Frank has a criminal history in New York, Massachusetts and Virginia under the name of Selena Stevens with convictions for grand larceny, and larceny.

According to the arrest warrant affidavit, on Nov. 11, 2021, a 53year-old woman complained to Stratford police that she had gone to Paradise Psychic and met with Frank because she wanted to get rid of “negative energies” that were affecting her life. The woman said she saw Frank several times and paid her $55,995 but believed she had been taken advantage of, the affidavit states.

The affidavit states that Frank told the woman that it would initially cost her $900 to rid her of the “dark cloud around her,” but after getting the money Frank told her she would need to bring her a “bundle of protection” made from a white T-shirt, 51 teaspoons each of sugar, salt and leaves from her neighborhood and 51, $100 bills.

The woman said she was so distraught and scared she followed Frank’s directions, the affidavit continues. She said Frank told her she (Frank) would have to keep the bundle so that the evil spirit would not escape.

The affidavit states that Frank then showed the woman a catalog of tabernacles and urged her to purchase a gold one to place her “demon spirit” inside.

The woman said she was “aghast” when Frank told her the price for the tabernacle was $49,995. But the affidavit states that Frank shamed the woman into writing her a check for the amount, telling her the evil spirit could re-enter her body.

The affidavit states that the woman kept waiting to get the tabernacle, but it never appeared. In the meantime, she told police she noticed Frank driving around in a new truck and a sports car.

The woman turned over the cancelled checks she wrote to Frank, the affidavit states. Her lawyer did not return calls for comment.

Read portions of the arrest affidavit, Frank told Hearst Connecticut Media that she agreed to return most of the woman’s money under a civil agreement.

“She was satisfied with everything. I was satisfied with everything. We came to an agreement, everything was fine,” she said.