Sobbing ex-head of Bronx gay community
center sentenced to at least 2 years in prison for stealing funds
By DOUGLAS MONTERO
Last Updated:
4:54 PM, April 1, 2013
Posted: 11:54 AM, April 1, 2013
The disgraced former
head of a Bronx gay community center sobbed in court today -- apologizing and
making excuses -- before she was sentenced to at least two years behind bars
for embezzlement.
Blubbering Lisa Winters
was led away in cuffs after Bronx Supreme Court Justice Martin Marcus signed
off a deal that’ll keep her locked up for two to six years.
She pleaded guilty to
second-degree larceny on Feb. 14, in connection to her $338,000 rip-off of the
Bronx Community Pride Center.
Winters siphoned the
money to pay for personal expenses such as a dog walker and expensive meals.
“I’m so sorry to all the
people that I hurt,” Winters said through a flood of tears. “I’m so sorry for
all the harm I caused.”
Even in apologizing,
Winters made excuses for the embezzlement and hid behind her mom.
“I can’t believe I’m in
this position,” she said. “My mom was dying, I don’t know what I was thinking.”
The judge didn’t buy any
of Winters’ tearful explanations and called her crimes a “betrayal of trust.”
“I’m amazed you are in
the position you are in now,” he said. “There was absolutely no excuse.”
The Bronx Community
Pride Center closed this past summer after 16 years of operation. Board members
said “economic difficulties, past debt and inability to raise” funds led to the
center’s closing.
From the New York Post
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