News

Couple accused of stealing donations for homeless veteran ‘likely’ face indictment: report

by Justin Wise

A New Jersey couple accused of withholding crowdfunding donations intended to help a homeless veteran could soon be indicted.

NBC News reported on Tuesday that a lawyer for Kate McClure and her boyfriend, Mark D’Amico, said in a court motion that the couple would “likely” be indicted for charges related to to the GoFundMe campaign they launched last year.

{mosads}The network noted that D’Amico was also arrested on Monday night for a traffic warrant related to his failure to appear in court in July. His court appearance was scheduled after he was stopped in October for having a broken taillight, driving with a suspended license and for failing to turn over his license.

NBC News reported that he was detained on an outstanding warrant and transported to the Burlington County Jail.

The news regarding the couple’s potential indictment is the latest development in a story that began after Johnny Bobbit Jr., a homeless veteran, gave McClure $20 to get gasoline in October after her car stalled. 

Video of the event quickly went viral and a GoFundMe campaign set up by McClure and D’Amico received more than $400,000 in donations. 

But Bobbitt later sued the couple, claiming that they had withheld the majority of the funds they had raised for him. Bobbitt asserted that he only received $75,000 and that the couple spent the rest, according to The New York Times.

McClure and D’Amico have pushed back against the allegations, saying they would not give him the money because they believed he would either misuse it or spend it on drugs. 

GoFundMe announced in a statement last week that its “platform is backed by the GoFundMe Guarantee, which means that in the rare case that GoFundMe, law enforcement or a user finds campaigns are misused, donors and beneficiaries are protected.”

The couple’s lawyer, Ernest Badway, wrote that D’Amico and McClure are “unable to defend themselves” against Bobbitt’s accusations because they lo longer have access to certain financial records, according to court documents obtained by NBC News. 
 
“(Since) it is expected that one or both of the defendants will likely be indicted, my firm and I will no longer be able to continue our representation of them in this matter,” Badway said in a motion, NBC News reported. 
 
The network noted that it it is unclear if Badway’s firm would represent the couple in a criminal court case. Badway’s request to place civil matters on hold while the criminal investigation takes place was agreed to by the judge.