She’s out at home
Yank GM gal guilty in housing scam
A Manhattan jury on Friday convicted the alleged exmistress of Yankee general manager Brian Cashman of lying on a subsidized housing application to score nearly $69,000 in rent breaks.
As the verdict was read, the usually bubbly Louise Neathway, 39, satt stonefaced, wearing a beige pantsuit and floral top and her hair pulled back in a tight bun.
It took jurors five hours to find her guilty of nine counts of grand larceny, falsifying business records and offering a false instrument.
During the oneweek trial in Manhattan Supreme Court, prosecutors argued that Neathway falsely claimed she had sole custody of her daughter and that her exhusband lived in England in order to bump up her household size to two.
This made her eligible for a belowmarketrate apartment at 88 Leonard St., a luxury Tribeca building, where she lived for five years.
The trouble was her ex, Jason Bump, has had sole custody of their 17yearold since 2004 and lives in upstate New York.
“This is a case about this defendant taking something she had no right to take, and in doing so, taking away the opportunity from other applicants who applied for and actually qualified for this apartment,” Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Kenn Kern said during the trial before Justice Bruce Allen.
Neathway was arrested in 2012 for allegedly stalking, harassing and extorting $6,000 and attempting to extort $15,015,000 more from Cashman by threatening to go public with their affair.
The scandal led to Cashman’s divorce from his wife, Mary Bresnan.
During the investigation, authorities uncovered evidence of housing fraud, and they opted to try that case first.
Defense lawyer Lawrence LaBrew wasted no time telling jurors that the beleaguered baseball big was the real reason Neathway landed in court.
“Sometime in 2012 she was arrested, charges were brought against her alleging various charges related to Mr. Cashman and at that point these [housingfraud] charges surfaced,” LaBrew told jurors. “The DA chose to prosecute this case.”
Neathway is expected to be sentenced Aug. 20.
Prosecutors are expected to try the extortion case next.