Woman Pleads Guilty In Jewish Nursing Home Identity Theft Case

Channel Francis. Image by Courtesy of A.G. Schneiderman

By Josh Nathan-Kazis July 11, 2017

A 40-year-old Queens woman pleaded guilty this week to making unauthorized purchases on the credit cards belonging to three elderly patients at a New York Jewish nursing home.

Channel Francis, who was arrested last October and charged this past March by the office of New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, faces up to four years in state prison.

“Identity theft of any kind is reprehensible — especially when it exploits vulnerable New Yorkers like nursing home residents,” Schneiderman said in a statement. “My office will not tolerate it.”

Relatives of three residents of the Parker Jewish Institute for Health Care and Rehabilitation complained to police in 2013 of unauthorized credit card charges in their elderly relative’s names. Investigators tracked the purchases to Francis, who had received personal information on the residents from an unidentified friend who worked at Parker Jewish.

Francis made $11,000 in purchases on the cards, including iPads and designer handbags.

Contact Josh Nathan-Kazis at [email protected] or on Twitter, @joshnathankazis.

Josh Nathan-Kazis is a staff writer for the Forward. He covers charities and politics, and writes investigations and longform.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO