A Belmont Park cashier has been charged with allegedly accepting thousands in counterfeit bills from two associates who then exchanged the receipts they recieved at a different cashier for real money. Yesterday Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice announced Karen Pommells, 30, of St. Albans Queens, was arrested at the park by District Attorney Squad detectives.
“The New York Racing Association cooperated fully with the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office in their investigation of this 2012 incident,” said NYRA spokesman Eric Wing. “We appreciate the District Attorney’s vigilance in this matter.”
On May 19, 2012, Pommells, a cashier at the New York Racing Association’s Belmont Park in Elmont, knowingly accepted $4,800 in counterfeit cash from the two associates. The receipts at Belmont have barcodes on them that its holder uses to place bets at the park’s electronic kiosks. The two associates took these receipts to the new cashier and cost the NYRA $4,800.
“This defendant didn’t just break the law, she broke the trust placed in her by her employer and the people of New York,” Rice said. “Ms. Pommells now faces criminal prosecution and serious consequences. I thank NYRA for their assistance in this investigation.”
Pommells is charged with Criminal Possession of a Forged Instrument in the First Degree, Grand Larceny in the Third Degree, and Conspiracy in the Fourth Degree. She faces faces fifteen years if convicted of these charges and will be arraigned at the First District Court in Hempstead. Assistant District Attorney George Smit of District Attorney Rice’s Organized Crime & Rackets Bureau is prosecuting the case.
[Source: District Attorney Kathleen Rice]