This is an update to a previous story about scamming psychic Paula Lee.
Morris County, NY: Five clients accuse psychic Paula Lee of scamming $324,650 from them. The clients are all from Morris County. George Abdy, her defense lawyer, said that his client simply offered a legitimate service that the customers didn’t think was worth the price. “I haven’t seen the discovery in the case, but everybody makes allegations these days. My client does this as a service.
She didn’t contact these people; they contacted her. She listens to them. If you don’t like her fees, don’t go to her,” Abdy said. The affidavit prepared by Morris County Prosecutor’s Office Detective Barry Bittenmaster states Lee met her clients at her fortune-telling business. Lee told them they needed to store large amounts of their money in churches. This money would then be prayed over and “cleansed” by her.
The 36-year-old scamming psychic also went by the names Christ Eli and Chris Evans. One man states he ended up paying Lee $5,100. He said she told him he had a “darkness” surrounding him. She said he needed to carry a 40-pound crystal in his car to protect him and sold him one. Bittenmaster says Lee also told another person they needed to give her a box containing $9,000 and two doll figures.
The Scammer Got Paid Family Vacations To Disney World
Lee also convinced another of her clients to send her and her family to Florida and Disney World. The woman listened to her and paid about $10,000 for the trip. At one point, she joined Lee in Florida to participate in a brief ceremony by a waterway. Lee persuaded the woman to participate in this ceremony to remove a “spell” her ex-husband had placed on her. According to the affidavit, Lee’s routine of “cleansing” money was typical.
Clients would give her large amounts of money to pray over and cleanse in churches. They all believed Lee would return the money to them after completing the process. The clients told Detective Bittenmaster that Lee would give them some of their money back but mostly made empty promises. She always assured them she’d return the “cleansed” cash but never did. The affidavit also revealed that Lee used scare tactics on one of her clients.
She told the client that her pregnant daughter would have complications during labor, and Lee convinced her to let her be present at the hospital when her daughter gave birth to ward off evil. Lee was arrested from her house last week due to an arrest warrant issued in May. She was taken to Morris County Jail and charged with money laundering, numerous counts of theft, and failure to file returns and pay taxes.
Bail Set At $75,000
Before Lee’s bail review on Thursday, Abdy and the county’s assistant prosecutor agreed that the court would keep Lee’s bail at $75,000. If Lee decided to post bail, State Superior Court Judge David Ironson required that she report to a probation officer in person every month and over the phone every week.
She was also strictly prohibited from making any contact with the alleged victims. Bittenmaster began his investigation in 2010, around the same time that Lee left the city of Randolph. The court granted grand jury subpoenas that allowed him to track Lee’s bank records. He discovered that her husband, a self-proclaimed fortuneteller named Steven Evans, had cashed checks from her victims through these records.
This information, however, did not implicate Evans in the criminal charges against his wife. Morris County Prosecutor Robert A Bianchi believes Lee exploited vulnerable and troubled people. “The actions alleged demonstrate a clear and repetitive pattern of fleecing money from numerous victims in violation of state law,” Bianchi said.
It really upsets me when people use the “well, they paid for it” excuse when fake psychics scam someone out of their money!
Let’s hope the Judge and jury see right through this weak excuse for theft!
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